A Chance Encounter
by Si-obi
Summary: Over 8 million people live in New York City. What are Darcy's chances of running into a supervillain? When Thor and the other Asgardians step foot on Earth again after Ragnarok, Darcy realises that the tall, dark stranger she met in New York a year ago isn't a stranger at all. Set after the events of Thor: Ragnarok and written because we're missing Darcy and Jane!
1. Chapter 1

Just a note that this has MAJOR spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok. So if you haven't seen it... go see it! It's fab, apart from the absence of Darcy and Jane...!

Also a warning for some foul language dotted around!

* * *

Darcy wakes up in a daze, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her eyes dart across to the source of the shrill, annoying ringing that had woken her from her desk-nap. She swears under her breath as she clicks her neck and reaches out, her head still resting on a ton of paperwork that needs doing.

Fuck whoever decided to wake her up. It is 2am and she is exhausted.

She's seriously considering getting a kickstarter going. "Get Darcy Lewis some god-damn sleep" would be its name. She considers this with sleepy amusement as she grabs her phone.

She swipes across the screen with a feeble motion and rests the side of her head on the desk, the phone balanced on her ear. She closes her eyes.

"Hey Jane." Her words are slurred, and she half wonders whether Jane will think she's been drinking again. Nope, just working herself to absolute exhaustion to pay for her cramped apartment in New York City. Overtime was a bitch, but a necessary bitch.

"Where are you right now?!" Jane seems frantic. "You need to be here. Please?"

Great, another world-ending event? It isn't surprising given the amount of shit that happened almost constantly nowadays. She lifts her head from her desk with a loud groan.

"I'm at Stark's office in New York. Why?"

"Come upstate." She cries frantically. "To the headquarters."

"What? Why? It's 2am."

"I can't discuss it over the phone." She hears Jane pacing on the other end of the line and rolls her eyes. "Just come. It's urgent."

"How urgent?" Man, she wants her bed right now. That, and a killer massage.

"As in you needed to be here 10 minutes ago urgent."

"You got it, bosslady." She rubs her aching shoulders and grabs her car keys. "I'll be there in 20."

* * *

When Darcy handbrake-turns into the Avenger's new headquarters, tyres squealing, she can easily see what is wrong.

Even in the darkness she can see that a large alien spacecraft is parked in Stark's backyard, dozens of security surrounding the building. Elegant men and women in otherworldly dress wander around the back of the facility, looking more than a little lost. She recognises them instantly as Asgardians, and knows why Jane was so frantic earlier. She'd broken up with Thor, hadn't she? Still, an ex-boyfriend from space showing up would be cause for concern, she guesses.

She parks up with difficulty (and by park she means abandon on the road outside – the entire place is packed with reporters and busybodies). She slams the door shut, grabs her taser and side-steps through the growing crowd. She is stopped at the barrier by a woman in dark clothes wearing an important looking headset and a flashy SHIELD badge on her waist. Darcy flashes her pass-card at her and raises her eyebrows.

"I'm here to see Dr Jane Foster. She called me here." She does her best 'secret agent voice', but it falls flat when the woman in black scoffs.

"You think you're getting through with that? If you've spoken to Dr Foster, you know exactly what's going on here. A level 2 pass isn't going to-"

"Listen lady, I broke more than five laws getting here this fast, and now you're just going to waste my time…"

At that moment, she sees her knight in shining armour. A red flash of cape comes bounding toward her and pulls her into his arms.

"Darcy!"

"Thor!" She grins against his metal chest armour.

"Holy shit. You cut your hair." She notes, giving him a noogie (Well, as far as she can reach). She suddenly notices the small eyepatch on his right eye. "What happened?"

"I'll regale you with the tale inside." He turns his head to the crowd behind her, who are frozen in shock. The poor security woman next to her has lost all composure. "Jane sent me to collect you. She saw the crowd outside and feared you'd get trampled."

"I guess… you're free to go through." The woman says feebly, and then mutters some code down the radio. The waves of security part and she follows Thor to the door. She almost asks what the deal is with their relationship status, but decides it isn't the best time. She gives Thor a playful punch instead, rewarding herself for her restraint.

"Any answers as to what the hell is going on here? I thought I saw Asgardians in the back."

"It is… a long story."

"And I'm guessing Jane is freaking out because of this 'story'."

He holds the door open for her. "You are here as emotional support, as she would put it."

"Always happy to help." She shrugs, trying to keep her curiosity at bay. She realises she's not been brought here thanks to her amazing intern skills, which isn't exactly surprising. "Where are we going?"

"Jane told me to escort you to the meeting room. I'll explain everything there. I think you're the last to arrive."

"You do know, I can't fly? The traffic in New York is terrible."

Thor laughs gently and stops at a door at the end of the corridor. His face grows solemn.

"I don't want you to be alarmed, Darcy, but my brother, Loki, is here. He will not harm anyone, you have my word. He's a… reformed character now, as far as my brother is concerned. Still, be on your guard."

"I'm sure he'll be a blast when he's not trying to destroy our race, right?" She smirks and places her hand on the door handle, taking a step inside. She's heard a lot about Loki, including the bill that New York sent him for his destruction, but hasn't seen him in the flesh. There are no photos circulating, even around the SHIELD employee forums she frequents. "I can't wait."

Darcy is slightly disappointed. She expects a colossal-scale meeting with tons of publicity and people clambering for answers as to why there seems to be Asgardians in Stark's backyard. However, the meeting room is actually a relatively small room with high ceilings and a window that spans the entire left hand side of the room. The slight tinting on the glass makes her realise it is opaque from the outside, free from the eyes of the reporters that are inevitably gathered outside. It looks out onto the big-ass spaceship that has touched down, surrounded by lush green grass and woodland.

The entire room seems to stop and stare as she pushes the door open fully. Only Thor's stride behind her keeps her walking toward Jane, who has turned and makes a gesture to sit down next to her. Her face is unreadable. Sort of a mix between 'I'm happy to see you' and 'I don't know what the fuck is happening either'.

The leather seats face the front, where a judge-like podium is placed. and the place looks completely empty and Darcy notices only around a dozen of these seats are filled. Next to the podium are three seats, two of them taken. A woman with light brown skin and a braid in her hair sits closest to the end. She wears silver armour plated with intricate markings and Darcy doesn't recognise her at all.

Next to her is a pale, lanky man who seems only too familiar to Darcy. That dark hair and high cheekbones can be recognised from a mile away. The only thing that is unfamiliar is the Asgardian armour he wears. Putting two and two together, she starts to back away.

"That's Loki?" Darcy whispers frantically to Thor, who nods his head solemnly. She happens to catch the eye of Loki, who mirrors her gobsmacked expression, further confirming her suspicions.

"Nope." Darcy shakes her head and turns toward Thor, bumping into him clumsily. Her fingers claw feebly at his chest at an attempt to move him. "This cannot be happening right now. Fuck."

Thor puts a comforting hand on her shoulder and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Jane get out of her seat in concern. "I thought you wouldn't be alarmed?"

"It's not that, it's…"

"Darcy Lewis?"

She freezes completely, her eyes widening at the male voice behind her calling her name.

"I have to go." She says, ducking under Thor's arm. She scurries out quickly, the door slamming behind her in her haste. It isn't long until she hears footsteps behind her and knows she is not alone. "Shit." She mutters under her breath.

"Lewis."

"I'm not acknowledging your existence right now."

She's striding down the corridor as fast as she can walk. She doesn't want to be seen running away from him.

"Lewis."

She stops dead in her tracks, realising that he was still behind her. He wasn't likely to leave without a fight. She keeps her back to him, unsure that she can look him in the eye.

"What did you say your name was again? Wasn't it Luke?"

"I thought you weren't acknowledging me?" Loki reaches out and grasps her arm, turning her around to face him.

"I'm not." She sighs, shaking her arm out of his grasp. "You tricked me. If I'd have known who you were-"

"You wouldn't have slept with me?" She meets his glance for the first time, and notices the lack of worry or concern in them. Or embarrassment.

There was a hint of mischievousness in his expression and Darcy is aware that it's not all innocent amusement.

He's imagining me naked.

This sudden awareness makes her face turn a beetroot red colour, and she is transported back 6 months. Up on the kitchen counter, her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling at his shirt, the soft moans against her lips-

She blinks the memory away of what followed.

"You could've maybe hinted that I was sleeping with my best friend's ex-boyfriend's brother? Oh, and don't even get me started on the New York thing."

"I didn't know who you were." He shrugs. "New York? That was ages ago. What do you mortals say: Water under the bridge?"

"It was four years ago?!" She wants to scream at him, but settles for angry whispering instead. "And then you waltz up, pretend to be charming-"

"-pretend-" he has the audacity to look offended, but Darcy cuts him off again.

"How was the walk of shame back to Asgard?" She laughs. It seems too silly for her to comprehend at this moment. "The old guy you had with you. The bearded dude? In the wheelchair? Was he just a stranger you pulled off the street to prank me? Using your 'poor, old father' for a bit of pity sex?"

"Oh, no. That was Odin, King of Asgard. Not my real father if that's what you're getting at." He doesn't look the slightest bit ashamed as he continues. Darcy, on the other hand, is gobsmacked. He chuckles under his breath. "What a chance encounter."

"What a shitty situation." She finishes for him and sighs heavily. He smirks.

"Hardly."

"I'm conflicted." She admitted, her mind in overdrive, her filter gone. "I can't believe I was fantasising about a psycho supervillain all this time!"

The insults are ignored completely and he raises his eyebrows. "You fantasised?"

"I didn't mean-" She stutters. "That black suit, the-"

He waves her protests away and leans forward, right into her personal space. "I usually don't play with mortals, but you called to me. Now I know why. Besides, don't tell me you didn't have fun that night. You certainly seemed… satisfied."

He runs a finger down the side of her face and along her jaw, his long fingers trailing slowly across her lips. The motion is familiar, but Darcy feels instantly cold and uncomfortable.

Without a thought, Darcy pulls her taser from her coat pocket and fires.

Loki goes down with a yell, and a crowd forms behind them.

Mortified, Darcy realises what she's done and takes a good look at Loki's limp body on the floor. She nudges him with her foot.

"Shit." She nudges him again. "Sorry."

Next thing she knows, Jane is running at her like a football player, ready to tackle her to the floor.

"What did he do?!" Jane pulls Darcy to the side as Thor picks his brother up with a slightly amused expression on his face. The small scientist has a surprisingly strong grip on Darcy's wrist.

"Ow. Nothing really." She rubs her wrist gingerly and tries to look over the crowd that has now surrounded Loki. "Knee-jerk reaction. Well, taser-jerk reaction."

"He knew your name. You know him." Jane shakes her head. It wasn't the first time she'd seen Jane completely stumped. Darcy shakes the scientist loose. "Somehow. Right?"

"I…" She is well aware of the crowd around her, and she whispers furiously back to Jane. "I'll fill you in later. I'm tired, I'm pissed off. I'm going home."

Jane nods. "Tonight?"

Darcy shakes her head and sighs. "I'm exhausted. Tomorrow? Midday? I have the day off."

"I'll call you."


	2. Chapter 2

_Huge thank you to people who have reviewed, favourited or followed! Big shout out to ClearPurpleSkies, Samy.F and ThatOneAuthoress - thank you so much guys! :)_

 **Chapter 2**

Jane just shows up at her apartment at 11.30am. One of the most impressive things about Jane is that she is ridiculously punctual (except when in 'deep sciencing' mode), but today, Darcy finds it plain inconvenient.

She dives out of the shower and answers the door, hair dripping and dressed in her grey fluffy dressing gown. She tries to shake the daydreams she just had of Loki in leather (she blames her actual dreams for that image), and pulls the door open.

"We said midday." Darcy leans against the doorjamb, unimpressed.

"I brought coffee and bagels." Jane lifts a brown paper bag and coffee up with a grin.

"Eugh." She resigns. If she wants to bribe her with coffee and bagels, fair play. She is sold. "Fine."

Darcy lets her in and takes a seat in her comfy armchair, worn from years of use. Jane sits down and hands her a coffee.

"You're here early because you couldn't wait, right?"

"It's frustrating. I hardly got any sleep. You could've just told me last night."

"I was a cranky bitch last night and you know it. That's kinda the reason I tased Loki." She admits, realising that her actions were spurred on by her exhaustion. "I take no shit from anyone on three hours of sleep. I would have tased _you_ if you were pissing me off. I'm an equal opportunities taserer."

She swigs the coffee and reads the side of the cup in curiosity. " _Four_ extra shots of espresso?"

"I figured you'd need it." Jane shrugs.

"Fair enough. Thanks," Darcy takes a bigger swig of her coffee. "Usually it's me bringing you coffee."

"Are you going to tell me how you know Loki or are we just going to tiptoe around the subject?"

"I like tiptoeing. So… what happened last night? Why were there Asgardians everywhere?" She hopes her diversion works. The last thing she wants to talk about is her… acquaintance Loki Odinson.

"Nope. You first." Jane isn't budging and Darcy groans.

"I hate you." Darcy realises that she's never going to get out of telling her. "Can't you guess?"

Jane scoffs. "My guesses had Thor in stitches. He actually laughed in my face."

"Why? Wait." She holds a hand up. "Are you guys…?"

Jane bites her lip. "For the time being, yeah. When he leaves I…" She trails off, realising Darcy's diversion tactic. "Anyway. Nice try. I said that maybe you met him in New York but we weren't in New York during the invasion, were we? We were in Norway. So we can rule that out. Yeah, I said it was more likely you'd met in New Mexico?"

"Was that the one Thor laughed at?"

Jane shook her head and laughed hesitantly. "No. I said that you were sleeping with him and he actually laughed in my face."

"Not sleep _ing_ with him." Ooh, the loose thread in the armchair is suddenly fascinating to Darcy and she doesn't see Jane literally reboot her brain. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Jane pipes up.

"You're kidding me. With _him?"_

"I'm kidding. I never slept with him," she lies after seeing Jane's reaction. "We met in New Mexico. I didn't know it was him, though. I gave him a ride. He was… pretty charming."

She doesn't know where the fuck these lies are coming from, but she's sure Loki himself would be proud of it. As lovely as Jane was, Darcy couldn't really confide in her in such a matter. Her reaction had said as much. If Thor and Loki were here to stay, Darcy wanted zero awkwardness. Well, as close to zero as she could get.

And technically, Darcy is telling the truth. She _did_ give Loki a ride, but just… not in that sense.

Jane looks relieved.

"That's it?"

"That's it. It was like, an hour's journey tops. But we talked like friends. It's weird now I know who he is." She's slightly side-tracked as she readies herself for any further questions. Which route did we take? What did we talk about?

"So you drove Loki to Thor when he was being held at SHIELD? Why didn't he just magically appear? Thor said he disappeared into thin air when he was speaking with Coulson." Jane's face is screwed up as she tries to recall bits and pieces from their first encounter in New Mexico over five years ago. Darcy curses herself, forgetting about the words from Loki that broke Thor's heart in the SHIELD facility. Oh well, she considers it to be a good alibi. Yeah, sure, she was driving him there. Why the fuck not?

Darcy gulps, and tries to pass it off with a shrug. "I don't know. Maybe he was seeing the sights? I remember him looking out of the window a lot." The lies come out a bit better now. Fuck, she's screwed if this gets out. She makes a mental note to contact Loki and get their stories straight. If he tells a soul, she swears she'll make his life a living hell.

Back to the matter at hand, she notes. Jane is processing her story, and seems to come to a satisfying conclusion.

"And the tasing…?"

"I was… angry. The dude blew up our town with a giant robot _right_ after I gave him a ride. He could've been grateful."

"I'm sure he'll pay you back for the gas money." Jane smiles. "He's a reformed man now, I hear. A _hero_."

"Bullshit." She leans back in her chair and sips her coffee.

"It's true."

Jane launches into a story of Loki's heroism featuring outer space adventures, the death of Odin, a run in with a Hulk, and finally, yet another surprise sibling murder fest. And finally, the end of Asgard.

"… So Loki is a hero because he summoned a devil thing to destroy Asgard?" Darcy frowns. "Sounds like something he'd do anyway."

"He's working with us now." Jane counters.

"And the Asgardians?"

"Tony is housing them as best as he can. Luckily, he's got some… apartments."

"How very convenient." Darcy wonders how much money that man actually had. "I'd love to see the Asgardians trying to figure out how the TV works."

Jane checks her watch. "You should probably come with me, actually. I'm visiting Thor in an hour to talk more… permanent solutions."

Darcy's mind immediately jumps to Loki, and she realises she has jumped up from her chair. Now would be a perfect time to force him to confirm the cover story. "As long as I'm not third-wheeling?"

Jane rolls her eyes. "There'll most likely be four of us, unless you tase the fourth again. Oh, and Banner said he _might_ be there."

Darcy sticks out her tongue and jumps into her room, pulling on her jeans and drying her hair. She's partway through curling her hair when Jane interrupts.

"I said I was meeting them at 1pm, you know." You couldn't really take the boss out of the lady when it came to bosslady. Her expression read 'typical Darcy' and she managed to look inconvenienced enough for Darcy to shout a quick apology.

"I'll be two minutes!"

Darcy's plans to look drop dead gorgeous to get a one up on Loki had failed at the first hurdle. In fact, Darcy was sure she'd run into the hurdle completely, and was dragging it along with her.

-x-

She knows it's bad when they make the journey to Stark's main office in New York City. Aka, her place of work. Aka, the place where the Asgardians were staying. She digs her work pass out of her bag and readies herself for the security pat down.

"Not that way." Jane pulls her to the side of the building and down an alleyway.

"Force of habit." She smiles. "Even though I have the day off, you're still dragging me to work."

"Technically…" Jane looks around her cautiously and waves at the tiny security camera that Darcy has completely missed. "…Not."

The blank wall in front of them seems to open out, and they climb into a silver elevator, void of any buttons or controls, other than an unmarked red handle labelled EMERGENCY. Darcy supposes even secret lairs must keep up to the health and safety standards.

She is honestly amazed by the sheer size of this place. Stark must've been keeping this side of the building a secret, but how, she has no clue. The building itself is deceptive and even the windows that looked out into the city are made of the same opaque glass at the headquarters in upstate New York. It just looks like solid wall. Weird.

It is a secret facility, and Darcy highly doubts Tony Stark is going to use it to rent apartments. It kinda feels like an elaborate, skyscraper bunker to her.

"Holy fuckballs. This doesn't seem weird to you?"

"I… was here last night." Jane's face instantly goes red and Darcy stifles a laugh.

"Sure you were." Darcy folds her arms, feeling the elevator climb higher and higher.

The elevator stops, and a burly SHIELD man leads the way down the corridor. She doesn't ask how he knows where they are going, but sure enough, he leads them to a glass office. Weirder still, Thor is sat at the table, unsmiling and dressed in a hoodie and jeans.

He looks positively normal (except from the huge muscles underneath).

Darcy hovers at the door whilst Jane rushes to Thor. She figured leaving the two alone for a moment to 'catch up' may be the best strategy here.

In hindsight, maybe not.

"Ah Loki, you've arrived." Thor smiles and looks to the figure behind Darcy.

She's immediately conscious of him beside her, mirroring her pose, leaning on the glass. After a moment of surprise, she acts nonchalant.

That is, until Jane starts speaking. "Ah, yeah. I can't believe you and Darcy know each other. She was just saying that she gave you a ride-"

Loki raises his eyebrows and looks to Darcy, amused at the double-meaning. "Yes. Yes, she did."

Darcy decides enough is enough and any other words out of this jerk's mouth could compromise her… what was she protecting again? Ah, yeah, her reputation. Without another word, she pushes Loki out of the door. Jane and Thor don't even notice. Darcy has her hand across his mouth, and pulls him around the corner. She's surprised he lets her, until she realises he's got hold of her wrists and has her pressed up against the wall.

At least they're out of sight.

"Is this where I push you up against the wall… Again?" He smirks. The asshole.

Darcy is suddenly finding it harder to concentrate. "Listen,'Lukey-boy'".

"I'm listening intently."

He's that close to her, she can feel his breath on her face. The next few words are a struggle.

"We met in New Mexico. I gave you a ride to the SHIELD facility where Thor was kept when he went to rescue Myur-Myur. We talked shit for an hour on the way there. I dropped you off. That's all that happened. Capisce?"

"And you think that'll suffice as an acceptable excuse?"

Darcy nods, "Jane already believes it-"

"-She'll believe anything."

Darcy is about to rant about how Jane is a scientist, goddamn it, when she hears the woman's screams from the office.

"Shit."

Somehow she's quicker than Loki, and gets to the door with him stood behind.

She sucks in a deep breath, her eyes wide at the scene before her.

Suddenly everything is in slow motion, and Loki pushes past her, shouting for a healer. Darcy is still stood, gobsmacked, as Banner also barges past her (when did he get here?)

They're all rushing to Thor, who is currently a heap on the office floor, his lips and skin a pale, unhealthy hue.

And Darcy is still stood there, waiting for her brain to tell her feet to get a goddamn move on.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _Just under a year ago._

New York at night is surprisingly busy. Darcy has barely any room to walk on the sidewalk, and nearly gets mowed down numerous times by passing taxis. Resisting the urge to shout "Hey, I'm walking here!" in her worst New Yorker accent, she plods on in her best attempt to slide past everyone. Darcy congratulates herself on not spilling the coffee she bought from the Starbucks on the corner as a group of rowdy drunk people push past her.

She hates the city, but she knows it is a damn sight better than the wasteland of Puerto Antiguo. London was a good compromise, she realises as she manoeuvres past a group of angry business men. Just the right amount of crazy, and the hot, rich men in suits were a huge bonus. In New York the ratio is a bit… off as far as crazy versus rich went.

Anyway, to the task at hand. Darcy is just super glad Jane didn't come to pick up her grandma's things personally. The scientist was depressed as it was, and Darcy highly doubts the journey to the nursing home would have been beneficial. She has at least half a foot on Jane, height-wise, at least, and the woman would have drowned under the sea of people she is fighting against.

However, she's not exactly glad that Jane has thrown herself into research in the wake of her grandmother's death, but Darcy is more than happy she can run errands like this to take the pressure off. Darcy remembers when her grandparents had passed, and how little things such as collecting someone's belongings could make the difference between a good and a bad day.

After all, it was just grabbing a box of stuff to Darcy, right?

She fights across the crowd and enters the reception area of Shady Plots nursing home. It looks nice enough, despite the name. Darcy approaches the receptionist and is cut off by a sharp tug on her shirt tail before she manages to speak to the bored-looking woman.

"Wha-"

She looks down at an old, white-haired man in a wheelchair. He looks frantic, the one eye not covered with an eyepatch wide in shock as he whispers to himself, his voice slowly getting louder.

"She told me about you! She showed me your face!" Darcy grows more worried as the man begins to shout. "Everything. She told me everything - I will perish but my son will remain. Because of you. You can help- she told me about you. You-"

"Hey, it's okay. Stop-"

His tugging at her shirt grows stronger, and he manages to knock her coffee out of her hand as he grabs her wrist. The warm (thankfully not scolding) coffee floods her shirt and she tries to fight off the old man as gently as she can manage. Her paper cup drops to the floor and meets the eyes of a tall, dark haired man.

"I apologise." He manages to calm the old man quickly, and picks her cup from the floor. "Lewis." He reads off the cup and smirks, discarding the empty cup in the trash. He meets her gaze and his eyes are beautiful, to her dismay.

Darcy is thrown by his grin and his soft accent. For a moment she struggles for words.

"It's… uh, Darcy." She has a habit of giving her last name at Starbucks, like she was signing for a parcel or something. She licks her lips unconsciously, not even aware of the way she was staring at this man. His black suit is so well cut she could practically imagine the slim, lean body underneath. Stop, Darcy. She chastises herself, realising she is drooling over a man she's just met. God she needs to get laid, and soon.

"Darcy."

My god, the way he says her name is enough to make her shiver. "You're…"

He hesitates, and Darcy thinks she's crossed a line. He doesn't _look_ uncomfortable with the staring, she thinks, and the way he is looking at _her_ is an invitation for ruin as far as she is concerned. He seems to have turned 'charm-mode' on. Well, Darcy is ridiculously charmed. And turned on.

" Luke," he says. His eyes drift down from her face to her chest, and she's about to yell at him when she realises he's staring at the coffee stain on her shirt. "I apologise for my father. He can be rather demanding. He isn't quite in the right mind. It has gotten too much for me to handle by myself."

Darcy smiles, absolutely smitten. She doesn't doubt that he could personally pour 100 coffees over her and she'd be fine with it. "It's… okay."

"I'll buy you another."

"You don't have to."

"I insist." He is no longer smiling, and the way he is looking at her is downright predatory. She's not helping herself either, returning the gaze with a slight rise of her eyebrows.

The receptionist clears her throat and Darcy realises she's been caught eye-fucking a stranger in front of her unashamedly, and a queue has built up. She lets out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

"Shit." She breaks eye contact with 'Luke'. "Um, I'm here to pick up-"

"I know." The receptionist shoots her a knowing look. "She called in advance. And apparently you're Darcy Lewis."

"Yup." Of course Jane had called in advance. She flashes her ID at the receptionist to confirm that she is, in fact, Darcy Lewis.

She sighs in response and slides a pitifully small box over the counter.

"That's everything?" Darcy's face drops as the receptionist nods.

Jane's grandmother's belongings are less than what Darcy had taken to London for a fortnight's stay. She tries to blink away the tears forming in her eyes and takes the box.

"Thanks."

She turns to 'Luke', who is kneeling down by his father, saying his goodbyes. He catches her eye and stands, a fiery look in his eyes. The carer wheels his father down the corridor and 'Luke' approaches her with a wistful look back at the retreating figures. He looks more relieved than sad.

"Coffee?" He says in a velvety tone.

"Maybe… we could go back to my place for coffee?" She doesn't know why she's being so forward, but she covers it up with a flimsy excuse. "Everywhere else is so busy, I mean."

He looks at her with a lazy smile. "I know exactly what you mean."

-x-

What is he doing? Loki shuts Darcy's apartment door behind him and looks around. It is disgusting. It's cramped and small, even for a Midgardian's dwelling. It is definitely no place for the new King of Asgard, with the chintzy mismatched furniture and tattered books. At least it is clean.

His original plan was to drop Odin off at the first place he could find, and then get back to Asgard as soon as possible to rule the masses. But then Odin had blabbered nonsense to this Midgardian woman. "She told me about you"? What did that mean? Who told him about what? Loki was stumped. Maybe Odin had lost his edge even more than he had originally thought.

After all, there is clearly nothing spectacular about this woman, other than her Midgardian snark and her beauty. Even if she had not been subject to Odin's rambling, he wagers she would have caught his eye on more than one occasion. As they had walked back to Darcy's apartment, talking, he had imagined a number of scenarios where those lips were put to better use.

But she has her back to him now, her hands preoccupied with the coffee machine on the counter.

Surely she doesn't mean _just_ coffee? Loki knows the Midgardian nuances and slang, and, unless he is completely out of touch (unlikely), coffee equals sex, right?

"Darcy."

He is so close to her, pressing her against the counter, making sure she can feel him. All of him. He brushes her hair over her shoulder, and kisses her neck, working up to her jawline. He half wonders if this is the right thing to do, and hesitates. The way Darcy looks at him is as if she knows who (and what) he is. He doubts it. To her, he is just a stranger. And it will stay that way. It has never been a problem in the other realms. Not yet, anyway.

-x-

He's fucking stunning. Darcy doesn't let this slip her lips as she looks up at the dim light reflecting off his pale skin. She turns to him, the counter digging into her back. She can still feel the trail of kisses on her neck and looks to his lips. He towers over her in height, though, and 'Luke' looks hesitant.

"I'm on the pill, if you're wondering." Darcy wonders if that's what he looks so worried about. "And I'm clean."

'Luke' nods, but looks no less conflicted. "As am I." His voice is a growl, and Darcy can see that his eyes are black with desire.

"I don't usually invite strangers to my house."

Loki smirks. Of course she doesn't.

Darcy wraps his arms around him, pressing herself against his body in an attempt to confirm what she wants. What she invited him here for. He moans softly, and Darcy swears she hears her name. She has little time to reflect as his lips meet hers.

He kisses her softly until Darcy tugs on his hair, her fingers knotted through his black locks. She pulls him closer and he responds, his hands trailing down to her thighs. He hoists her up onto the counter. She breaks the kiss with a surprised squeak. What the fu-

He kisses her roughly, his moans louder.

Loki's hands explore under her shirt, and his kisses trail down her collarbone. Darcy pulls off his suit blazer, her fingers making quick work of his tie and shirt. He's now completely topless, and Darcy trails her fingers across his bare chest, across his surprisingly muscled shoulders.

"Fuck." She mutters as he undoes her buttons, his hardness now _very_ apparent. He notices her breathlessness and looks up at her with a mischievous grin.

"Bedroom?" She asks with a gasp. "Not that I mind but-"

She is cut off with a kiss, and Loki grabs her roughly, lifting her off the counter. He practically rips the shirt off her, and she hears the clatter of dropping buttons on the hardwood floor. She doesn't care- the coffee stain wouldn't have come out, anyway, right?

They don't even manage to make it to the bedroom, but Darcy is more than thrilled when he pushes her up against the wall with a low noise in his throat.

"I need you now."

Just that sentence is enough to set her off, and she feels him tugging at her jeans. She notes his urgency and goes for his belt, and soon they are fully unclothed. Fuck, he is huge, and Darcy would have dropped to her knees at that very moment if it weren't for his grip on her. His touch is frantic as he barely positions himself at her entrance before Darcy sinks into him with a low groan. She was wet from the moment he first kissed her, but now…

She can feel his length as he sinks into her gently, slowly teasing her, testing her out. "Fuck." Her arms tighten around him, and she is backed right up against the wall, her legs tightly wrapped around his waist. There's little room between the two, and that's just the way Darcy likes it.

"Oh my God," she gasps between moans, and it elicits a chuckle from Loki. She had no idea about Gods. If only she knew.

He holds her tighter, his grip a delightfully painful pressure against her thighs as his movements turn more feral, more urgent. His thrusts quicken and Darcy does not give a shit about what the neighbours can hear (which is the loud bang of Darcy against the wall and their combined moans). She finds the crook of Loki's neck and rests her head there, breathing heavily against his cool skin as they move together.

His skin is oddly cool, she notes, but stops thinking entirely when his fingers find the bundle of pressure that has been building up between her legs. She lets out a wanton moan when he begins to move his fingers slowly, still thrusting into her with fervour.

Darcy can hear his breath quickening with every thrust, and he moans her name on more than one occasion, to her absolute pleasure.

She comes before him, and by that point, she is a quivering mess. She looks up at Loki, his eyes and his hair wild, and claims his lips with hers. She whispers words of nonsense against his mouth, words of encouragement as she comes with a shudder. Her words are a catalyst, and he thrusts into her with one, last deep push, emptying into her with a look of absolute bliss.

They stay there a second, unmoving. Loki is staring at Darcy in what looks like… surprise? Or awe? Either way it's post-coital _something_ , and Darcy almost feels the click of a connection between them, but it is broken when she realises she doesn't even know anything about him. Not even his last name.

She doesn't know what she looks like, but she's guessing she looks completely undone. He leans his forehead against Darcy's and laughs, his breath now slow and steady. His eyes are closed, and Darcy takes advantage, taking in his inhumanly beautiful features, tracing his cheekbones with a shaking index finger.

She gently releases her legs around his waist and stands, her legs shaking. _He_ doesn't move, though, and she finds herself in the tantalising position between the wall and 'Luke'. He finally opens his eyes and kisses her gently, taking her head in his hands, brushing the hair from her face.

She half wonders whether she is dreaming this, and maybe she _did_ get hit by a taxi and she's in the ER.

"You're not dreaming." His voice is ridiculously low and gruff.

 _Shit. Had she said that out loud?_

"I may need confirmation on that one." She says breathlessly.

"Maybe this time we could make it to the bedroom." He grins.

"Round 2?" Darcy gulps. "Give me time to recover, man. At least to clean up-"

"-No time." He hoists her back up again and kicks open the bedroom door. Darcy swears as his lips find hers again and she is thrown onto the bed, laughing against him as he attempts to undo her bra, which has miraculously stayed on during this whole debacle.

Darcy reckons she's in for a long, long night.

Not that she minds.


	4. Chapter 4

_Firstly a big shout out to AppleIsTheScrubLord (lets hope so!), ThatOneAuthoress (we shall see- poor Thor!), Samy.F (Ta- hope to update soon!), Guest (hah sorry about the cliffhanger!), LWolf (working on it haha!), Sasha (thanks, I'm writing away!), tardisoftheshire (omg thank you so much – I miss Darcy and Jane so much!), Fern23 (on it!), GrumpyCat503 (thank you!), Samy.F (again! Thank you ;)) , Anon (I shall see what I can do- me too!), KCM (Ha glad you enjoyed it!)_

 _Stark Tower, present day._

Darcy expects Jane to be in Tony Stark's mini-hospital penthouse suite, crying her eyes out over her unconscious God.

But instead, she's in the lab, running simulations and speaking in a frenzied-science language that Darcy knows only too well from her internship in New Mexico. This time, however, the tone is not excitement and discovery, but desperation and urgency.

The Asgardian healers, or what is left of them after the destruction of Asgard, are up with Thor in the medical suite. Darcy hears he's been put in a cyrochamber, but she hasn't been up to see him since. She hates the idea of being sat by his bedside, doing absolutely nothing productive or useful. Here, she thinks she is helping, at least. Plus she hates hospitals, no matter how high-tech they may be.

Jane is absorbed in whatever simulation she's running at the moment and Darcy watches as a holographic Thor is zapped with what she assumes to be electricity. A red error flashes on screen and JARVIS' voice tells her the simulation has failed, and the subject is still unconscious. She also notes the experiment number: #616. Fucking hell.

Jane takes a deep breath and puts her head in her hands.

"The healers said something about energy, right?" She stands next to Jane and crosses her arms.

Jane nods. "Apparently he takes it from Asgard, same as his sister, Hela-"

"-the psycho end-of-the-world one-"

"-yeah. And because Asgard isn't there anymore… They think the power he used to take down Hela made him weak, and he just… didn't get any better."

"Hardly keeping to the laws of thermodynamics, huh?" Science. Science will cheer Jane up, she thinks. Who knows if her statement is right, but it produces a small smile from Jane. "Besides, you didn't fuck him to unconsciousness, did you?"

Jane takes a rare moment out of her work to shoot a look at Darcy. Her exasperated expression slowly fades into doubt, and then to worry. "Maybe it was me. Maybe I-"

"-Jane I was _joking-"_

"I should've known he wasn't well." Jane shakes her head. "He was-"

"-Nope." Darcy isn't having any of it and cuts her off with a wave of her hand. "Jane. This is a Thor-slash-Asgard problem. There's nothing we can do about it but wait until a solution comes along. Or we make a solution. Like we always do."

"You're right." Dr Banner manages to sneak up on them and takes a seat next to Jane. "I'm working on it now, Dr Foster. Take a look at these."

He produces a clear tablet with lots of sciency-looking equations and models on it, and Darcy knows she's over her head with this.

They're just concerned, just like Darcy is. But they know a lot more than she does, that's for sure.

She feels like a coward, remembering how her feet had frozen to the ground, her body turning to ice at the sight of Thor's body on the floor, whilst everyone else had rushed to action.

And Loki's face when he was yelling at her to get help. She'd never seen him like that, so… concerned? Of course they are brothers, but she never considered them close siblings. Well, it is doubtful- Loki has gone full Houdini and disappeared into thin-fucking-air. She hopes that he's trying to find a solution, at least.

"Don't you have work in a couple of hours, Darce?" Jane adjusts her posture and looks at her tiredly. It is past 4am and they've been working all night. Jane's eyes are red, and Darcy wonders whether it's from tiredness or crying. Or a combination of both.

"I called in a favour. I have the week off. Plus Stark himself has told me to lie low until the news about the Asgardians break." She shrugs. "And the man is technically the boss of my boss, so… Plus I'm not arguing with Iron Man. He'd kick my ass."

"He's hardly here enough to kick ass." Jane says, yawning.

"True." Darcy agrees. "You'd think that half the AWOL Avengers would get their asses back here to help. I mean, the last time I saw Steve Rogers was through grainy CCTV footage about a month ago, and no one's seen Director Fury since he 'died'. Can't believe they're actually paying me to keep tabs on everyone and clean up their messes? Like they don't hate each other already, Stark's playing Big Brother? I don't…"

Darcy trails off, realising she's rambling and Jane and Bruce beside her have lost all interest. Understandably. They don't need reminding what Darcy does for a living, or how dire the state of the Avengers is (especially Bruce, who has been hit pretty hard by his colleague's fallout-especially in his absence). "I'll go get more coffee."

"Mmhm." Jane taps away at the touchpad again, her face determined, Dr Banner next to her with the same focused expression. After over 600 simulations, Darcy is still surprised Jane has the patience left to run another.

Darcy makes her way to the kitchen area, where she hunts down some fresh milk and coffee. She groans as she realises the coffee pot is empty, and fills it with water and ground coffee, watching it slowly drip into the pot.

It's like watching paint dry.

She turns and reaches to get some clean mugs out of the top cupboard, when she feels someone behind her. Their hand brushes hers as they easily reach to the top shelf Darcy was trying to get to on her tiptoes. She freezes, seeing the long, elegant fingers curl around her own. There's only one person that tall that consistently invades her personal space, and she groans internally.

"Please don't tase me again." He says, his lips close to her ear.

"My god." She turns around, her back against the counter as Loki hands her the two mugs she was trying to reach. The position is oddly familiar, and she tries to push her thoughts away. "Where've you been?"

"Thinking." He sighs and takes a seat at the breakfast bar.

It's so weird to see him in his Asgardian get up, sat in the kitchen of the penthouse of Stark Tower. Mind, it was weird seeing him pinned to her mattress a year ago, she supposes.

"Oh good, me too." Darcy thinks now is a good time to relay her strange findings. She's been on the computer all night (aside from when Jane needed her help or when she took a sneaky nap) and has been looking up everything and anything Asgardian or magic related. She thinks she's found something, but is doubtful. And the information came from one of her 'friends', who happened to be a self-proclaimed 'hacktivist'. She doesn't believe him anyway, but decides she might as well throw it out there.

"Listen," she starts hesitantly. "I've got an idea, but it's kinda weird. Hence why I'm telling you first instead of Jane. She'll think I've gone banana-balls on her, just like Erik did. Your fault by the way. Jane's all science-this, and science-that, and when I start babbling about magic she'll try find a rational-"

"Can't you just tell me?" Loki cuts her off and looks tired. "This is about my brother, I presume."

"Yeah, why is there some _other_ big issue going on in your life?" She looks at him with disbelief. "Don't answer that."

"Did you always babble nonsense?" Loki shoots her an exasperated look. "Or is that a more recent habit?"

"Who's babbling nonsense? You again, Loki?" Another voice comes from behind them, and Darcy spins around in panic.

It is the Asgardian from the meeting, the woman with the braids. She's more beautiful close up, though her Asgardian clothes look more tattered, the leather worn and the buckles rusting. Despite this, Darcy is sure she would be just at home on a catwalk of some kind. She laughs and grabs a beer from the fridge, throwing the cap in Loki's direction, and Darcy comes to the instant conclusion that she likes this girl. She oozes confidence and the laid-back demeanour Darcy aims for with an attitude that suggests otherwise.

Darcy stifles a laugh as she watches the death-glare Loki shoots at the woman, catching the cap and throwing it to the ground.

"You're Valkyrie, right? Jane told me about you."

"Yeah. You're the one who tasered him?" She gestures to Loki, her face filled with glee and Darcy finds herself blushing.

"She did. For the record, it was rather impolite." Loki rolls his eyes.

Valkyrie looks at her with an impressed smirk. "I'm a fan."

Darcy tries to keep her cool and clears her throat. "I… Tased Thor when I first met him, too, so..."

"And here I was thinking I was special," Loki says with a sarcastic drawl. Valkyrie's smile drops and her eyes flit between the two. Darcy swears she looks suspicious, but her expression changes back in seconds and she takes a swig of her beer, leaning on the doorjamb. She seems completely laid back, relaxed.

"Well." She sighs. "Wasn't this fun. You guys get on with arguing or whatever you were doing-"

"-We weren't-"

" _Whatever you were doing._ I don't care. I'll be upstairs if you need me." She disappears around the corner, raising her bottle up in a 'cheers' gesture.

"For an elite Asgardian warrior, she is a fool. She makes me wish Sif was here." Loki sighs, clearly tired. "Anyway. You were saying. About magic."

"I think she's pretty cool…" She struggles to get back on track for a second, and suddenly remembers. "Oh right. Magic. So, word on the street is that a friend of a brother's friend's doctor went crazy and he's now into all the dark arts mumbo-jumbo. Get this. He heals people. With magic." Darcy knows she's rambling, so she stands next to Loki at the bar and places her phone down between them on the table. "And! He just so happens to be on a Classified SHIELD list. Meaning he's legit. Or dangerously fake, either one. I know you've got to be either to get on SHIELD's radar."

Loki's face drops. He knows exactly the doctor she is referring to. "You have access to the classified SHIELD archives, hm?"

"I…" Darcy shifts uncomfortably and puts her phone away in her coat pocket. "Do not. But that's not the most pressing matter here. He could heal Thor. I hear you're all into your magicy-stuff and shooting death rays out of your fingers, so if you can't heal him, I want you to come with me to see if he can."

"Death rays…" Loki looks exasperated, and spins the chair around so he can face her. Darcy stands her ground, conscious that he's sat with his legs wide open right in front of her, so close that she could run her hands up his thighs… Eugh. Focus, Darcy.

"Listen, Lewis. He won't help us. When I last 'saw' him, he had me falling in a void for half an hour. I fear an attempt to contact him may result in the same outcome."

"What?" Darcy leans forward, grinning. "So he's legit?"

"Of course." Loki doesn't look too happy about it.

"Then I don't need you. I'll just go by myself."

Darcy turns, wanting to run to Jane with this news, but is pulled into Loki's lap. Darcy is practically holding her breath. Shit he is close.

"That isn't the wisest idea." He scoffs arrogantly and brushes a strand of hair from Darcy's face, clearly amused.

"What would be the wisest idea, huh?"

Darcy acts like this position isn't fazing her, but her mind races back to one of the mind-blowing orgasms he'd given her that fateful night. And that morning, too. Jesus. She fidgets, and he grins as if he knows why. Of course he does, the smug bastard.

"I think the wisest idea would be to stay here and relieve some tension whilst my brother regains consciousness all by himself."

Darcy immediately backs away, ignoring her heart, which feels like it's about to beat out of her chest. Fuck that. Or _don't_ fuck that, she realises. She's gone there once. Never again, she tells herself. She takes a deep, calming breath before she continues.

"You really think he'll heal himself? Do you not hear yourself right now?" To say he'd been so concerned at the scene, Loki looks at ease now. She tries to ignore his hand on her hip, still resting there despite her step back.

"I've done worse. I've stabbed him _numerous times_ , I've hit him, transformed him into a manner of creatures… I even pretended to chop off his arm that one time." He thinks carefully, his fingers drumming gently on her hip. "There _was_ that time I poisoned him, but that was by accident, and he took that pretty well, I'd say. He'll wake up in a few days, and we can all laugh about this." Loki shrugs. "Like we did when we were children."

Darcy folds her arms and eyes him with concern and a little bit of disgust. " _One_ , you were stabbing and poisoning each other as _children?_ You have problems. And _two_ , what if he doesn't wake up?"

Loki shrugs again. "Not stabbing _each other_. I was doing most of the stabbing. And he will wake up. No doubt about it. I don't quite believe your theory that Jane fucked my brother to unconsciousness, you know."

"You heard that? You know I was kidding right?"

Loki laughs. "Yes I heard it. I found it amusing. The idea that a _mortal_ could impact a _God's_ energy is… well, foolish."

"Ha! That's rich, coming from you. You slept like a baby after we..." Darcy's triumphant grin drops and she realises what she's said. She sighs furiously, whilst Loki grins away. "Eugh, shut up. Come with me. Don't come with me. Either way, this Doctor is going to fix Thor."

-x-

It's just after 6am, and Darcy stands outside 177A Bleeker Street with an awestruck expression. She's never seen such an imposing building. She's walked past here many times, and how she had missed this building is beyond her. The sunrise reflects against the darkened windows, an orange haze over the institute.

"Do we just… go in?" She turns to the disgruntled Loki on the sidewalk. He's dressed in that black suit again, and Darcy tries very hard not to look at him. Especially since he's paired it with a long, emerald wool coat that looks unbelievably cosy (and costly).

"You first." He sighs, exasperated.

Darcy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before turning on him with a scowl. "How very gentlemanly of you. Does this mean you're going to follow me in? Or are you going to grab breakfast around the corner and wait until I'm done chatting?"

"Can you _not_ be so …" He searches for the word and throws his hands up in exasperation. Clearly there are no words in his vocabulary that could describe Darcy right now. Infuriating? Frustrating? Maddening beyond belief?

"I'm sorry? Your brother is in a coma or whateverand you can't be bothered asking for help? Are you going back to skulk in your room now, pretending he's going to wake up without our help? And if he doesn't? You don't care, right? Because you're _Loki_ , of _Asgard,_ and you're too… cool to care about your big brother, huh?"

"How could you assume that?" Loki takes a step forward and his face is furious. "I assure you that is _not_ the case."

She knows she's goading him now, but she can't seem to stop the words from spilling out of her mouth. "It certainly seems like it! You don't give a shit whether he lives or dies, do you?"

Ouch. This clearly strikes a chord with Loki and he steps back from her with a hurt expression.

"For the record, affection for my brother seems to be at an all-time high nowadays. Like I said, he'll get better without help from this… _witchdoctor_." He snarls. "What is worrying me, however, is a potential threat to _my_ life, so if you'll excuse me-"

"You are such a _diva._ Just come in here with me!"

"Do you not value your own life, Lewis?"

"Why, are you scared it'll take precious minutes off the thousands of years you have left to live, huh? Why are you being a stubborn bastard?"

"Perhaps it is because you wind me up-"

"- Are you guys done with the fighting? My _God_. What a wake-up call." Another exasperated voice chimes in and both Darcy and Loki suddenly find themselves in a lavish room, various artefacts in glass cases around them, the streets of New York nowhere to be seen.

"Darcy Lewis. I'm Dr Stephen Strange." He introduces himself to Darcy with a confident handshake.

"How did you do that?!" Darcy gladly shakes his hand, giddy from the teleportation. "That is so cool!"

This elicits a smile from the Doctor, which drops when he glances over to Loki. Darcy swears she can hear him muttering under his breath. Something that sounds like " _I can do that."_

"Not what his big brother thought last time. He's not too keen on me, is he?" Dr Strange gestures to Loki, who has taken a protective stance _way_ behind Darcy. She swears she sees him wink at Loki. "Wonder why."

"Don't try anything, _wizard_." Loki says through gritted teeth, his fingers itching to summon his blades.

Darcy shakes her head and turns to Dr Strange. "Please don't curse him. Not now, anyway."

Loki looks offended, but Darcy ignores his look.

"You know Thor, right? You said you met him last time."

Dr Strange nods. "It is not often you find Asgardian Gods in your Sanctum."

"Yeah, well …we need your help. He's ill. Asgard has been wiped off the map. They think he's dying because he fought his evil sister and needs to re-energise or something. Haven't you got some magic voodoo or spells to make him better?" She wants to phrase it better than this, but under the stern (and very attractive) gaze of the Doctor, the words just tumble out of her mouth.

"Voodoo, no. Spells… doubtful. I heard about Asgard's destruction. What a waste." Dr Strange frowns, thinking. "What he may need may lie in Norway, where I last sent him."

"Why _Norway_?"

"It is where our father died." Loki's quiet interjection echoing through the room. "It is where we first met Hela. How will that help, sorcerer?"

"Don't be rude, Loki." Darcy hisses at him, and then turns to Dr Strange with a frown. "But yeah, how will going to Norway help?"

"Thor lost something there, other than his father. A piece of his soul, his life-force, was left there."

"Mjolnir." Loki whispers with sudden realisation. "How did you know?"

Dr Strange shrugs. "If it is energy you are looking for, there's your best bet."

"Just a bet?" Darcy tries not to sound like a spoilt child. "Meaning it might not work?"

"You think I have some magic potion?" Dr Strange shakes his head and looks exasperated. "Doesn't work like that. Plus, my knowledge of Asgardian Gods may be a little rusty, especially when there's no instruction manual on how to heal Gods when Asgard is destroyed."

"Tell me about it. I'll write one when we save him. So we're going to Norway. Somewhere in Norway? It's kind of a big place." Darcy's excitement is wearing off and now she realises the vagueness of Dr Strange's answers are pissing her off a little.

"You'll see when you get there." Dr Strange begins to move his arm in a circular motion, until a portal appears next to Darcy, a border of golden sparks flying around it. "Good luck."

"Through there?" Darcy seems apprehensive. "That thing we said about valuing my life, Loki? I do. That thing looks _dangerous_. I'm not going through-"

"Stop fussing, Lewis. It will be fine." Loki practically grabs her by the wrist, pulling her clean through the portal and Darcy is way too surprised to fight him.

Her steps go from solid wooden floor to lush grass in seconds, and the portal closes behind them, leaving them stranded on what looks like a cliff.

"What the fuck?" She mutters. There is a beautiful vista in front of her, the sea stretching out for miles. She walks to the edge of the cliff and looks down the at the 100 foot drop to the shore.

It is gorgeous, and despite the sun shining brightly through the clouds, Darcy suppresses a shiver. She pulls her coat around her. It isn't windy, but there's a chill in the air, and Darcy feels it down to her bones.

"I should've brought a thicker jacket."

She steps away from the edge gladly, looking around at the empty fields.

She expects a stupid retort from Loki, but instead she finds him staring out over the cliff with a wistful expression. Shit, he better not get sentimental with her. Comforting him was the last thing she wants to do. Besides, whichever shrink he saw could easily rake in the money – she wasn't about to do it for free.

Still, she can't help herself. "You okay there?"

Loki is still looking out with a glazed expression. "Odin died in this very spot." He turns and gestures in front of him at an oddly shaped pile of rocks. "And our sister appeared to us."

"What was she like, your sister? Aside from evil, I mean."

Loki breaks his gaze to look at her. His look screams restrained fear and reluctance. "She was like me." He whispers so quietly Darcy struggles to hear it. "The ambition, the bitterness, the desire for a throne, for power and subjugation."

"Was she a drama queen, too?" Darcy laughs it away, but his words hit her hard. Maybe he was more self-aware than she had previously thought. She watches as his cheek lifts in a half smile, and then drops within seconds.

"She was terrifying. Truly terrifying." He looks as if he is reliving the moment, fear in his eyes. "I think... I saw what I could become."

Darcy is about to question him further when something catches her eye; a movement on the hills in the distance.

"Loki…"She squints at the human figure wandering slowly through the grass and gasps.

"What the fuck?!" She grabs Loki's coat with one hand, her gaze still on the figure in the distance. She points a shaking finger toward the man in disbelief. "Isn't that your dad?"


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N - Hey guys, as promised - part 5!_

 _I can't reply to everyone via PM so here's a shout out to all you lovely lot! SamyF- You're awesome as always, thank you! :) AppleIsTheScrubLord – Eee, thank you! As promised, here's chap 5! Lwolf – we shall see! ;) KCM – I love them too! Odin is such a dick sometimes huh! ahyeon – your review made me smile so much! Thanks for your kind words! and yeah added drama haha! :)_

* * *

Loki turns immediately, staring out at the same spot Darcy is pointing at with a trembling finger.

"What?" He squints and follows Darcy, who is marching toward the figure with a determined gaze. "I see nothing."

"He's right there! He's walking away!" Darcy shouts back at him and stops in her tracks when something crunches under her feet. "Ow." She looks down at the remains of Mjolnir, the cracked metal scattered in the grass. When she looks up, Odin has disappeared into thin air.

Darcy takes a deep breath and turns to Loki. "I swear, he was right there."

Loki looks hurt, his gaze still fixed on the same spot in the distance, squinting.

"He was leading us to Myur-myur." Darcy kneels in the grass and looks to the broken pieces. "Hela did this?"

Loki looks sullen. She's reaching to pick a piece up when Loki pulls a face. "You won't be able to lift it. This was a bad idea." He sighs heavily. "I think this is where we cut our losses and head back. I wouldn't bother trying – the enchantment-"

Darcy lifts the pieces with ease, marvelling at the feel of them in her hands. "Does this mean I'm worthy, huh?"

She grins, and throws a piece to Loki, who catches it reflexively. Weirdly enough, his hand doesn't go flying to the ground, and instead, the piece lies firmly in his palm. His mouth, wide open, turns up into a grin.

"The enchantment must have worn off when it was destroyed. I doubt we are _both_ worthy of lifting the hammer of Thor," he adds when Darcy opens her mouth to dispute his comment. "Especially you."

"What's that meant to mean?"

He doesn't answer; instead, he picks up a sizable chunk of Mjolnir, his face trying to hide the astonishment that he truly felt. It was strange to feel the metal without having it flung at him, or stuck to his chest, pinning him to the ground. He chuckles and starts to pick up the smaller pieces, filling his pockets with shards of Mjolnir.

Darcy does the same and frowns when Loki takes off his jacket and passes it to her.

"Can you read minds?" She asks curiously, shivering in the cold. "I've been checking out that jacket for a while now."

"Perhaps it is not the only thing you have been checking out."

Darcy makes a gagging noise, hiding the fact that, yes, she had been checking him out _way_ before he had put on that coat.

"Can we go back now?"

"We can't."

"Hm?"

"I tried to go back the moment I managed to pick Mjolnir up." Loki doesn't meet her eyes and shakes his head. "It's not possible. Not with Mjolnir. I think the material is still as stubborn as its owner, even without the enchantment."

"Were you planning on taking me with you, huh?"

"Of course. Hold this and _stay here_." Without another word, he slowly fades into shimmering air.

"What the fuck!" Darcy shouts at his fading figure. She's still holding the coat, heavy with the weight of Mjolnir. She collapses dramatically on the ground with a furious groan. "You are such an asshole!"

She mutters under her breath as she lies in the grass, looking up at the sky in resignation, still grasping the soft wool of his coat. It is beautiful here, but now she is stuck here, she feels the beauty fade a little bit.

 _Has he even changed from the asshole he was before?_ She half-wonders, and feels a little guilty as soon as she thinks it. After all, she has no idea what has happened since he left her apartment a year ago. Whatever _had_ happened had made Loki do a full 180 into a seemingly rational 'good guy'. Darcy has yet to see this in action, but doesn't doubt it when it comes from Jane's own mouth.

Jane could tell her that the world was flat and she'd try her best to believe her.

But what he had said about Hela makes her think. She wishes she could read minds. That way, figuring out what the hell Loki is up to would be so much easier. Maybe he had changed his mind about taking over the universe, or whatever he tried to do in the past. And maybe it _was_ because of his sister. She guesses seeing true evil made Loki re-evaluate his goals. She doesn't even try to understand what is going on in his head.

"He faked his own death _twice_ for God's sake." She says to no one in particular, and takes out her phone to while away the time.

-x-

It takes Loki an hour to come back, and by then, Darcy has decimated her phone battery playing candy crush sat in the grass, half covered by Loki's coat.

She is amazed when he rocks up with a small Quinjet, strutting out on the ramp.

Her teeth are chattering as he lends a hand, helping her stand. She bats it away and scowls.

"Y-you're back. T-t-thank fuck." She chatters feebly. Her anger dissipates for a second as confusion sets in. "Where did you get that?"

"I went to persuade the Man of Iron to pick us up in one of his jets. But then I realised it would be easier to just take one. The German SHIELD division has to step up their security. It was embarrassing."

"You stole a Quinjet?"

"I don't think SHIELD like me very much, so this won't affect their fondness for me."

"I wonder why they don't like you." She mutters under her breath.

He shrugs as if he genuinely doesn't know and picks up the coat from the ground. The pieces of Mjolnir are almost falling out of the pockets, and he transfers them into a small black bag with a SHIELD logo on it. She sticks her bottom lip out, nodding in approval.

"Didn't know SHIELD did branded merch." She laughs and transfers the pieces from her pockets. "For a secret organisation they're pretty well advertised."

Loki gestures towards the Quinjet precariously parked on the cliff's edge. "Let's go."

Darcy eyes the jet with uncertainty.

"I won't crash," he says, as if reading her mind.

She nods slowly, not entirely convinced, and follows him to the small jet. She feels a sense of claustrophobia as the doors seal shut on the cargo hold, where a small number of seats are lined up against the walls. It doesn't look the cosiest of set ups, but it will get them home, at least.

Loki walks to the cockpit and starts the engine with ease. She _does_ wonder where he learnt to pilot a jet, but stops when she realises that he's probably flown spaceships more complicated than this.

"So Top Gun, how long will it take to get home?" She takes a seat in the back, buckling up. She watches the dials light up and the ground below them grows smaller, replaced by clouds.

"4 hours. Give or take 30 minutes."

"Eugh." She hangs her head and shivers. She then watches in horror as he gets up from the pilot seat, her eyes wide with panic. "Hey! You're supposed to be flying this thing!"

"Autopilot." He rolls his eyes as Darcy breathes a sigh of relief.

Loki takes a seat next to her, draping his coat over her shoulders in a gesture that Darcy is genuinely surprised by.

"Thanks." She pulls the soft wool around herself, trying not to breathe in the scent he's inevitably left.

"Apparently I don't feel the cold like you do." She can't tell whether Loki is bragging or not, but his tone is less argumentative, and so Darcy stays pleasant.

"Another God thing?"

"A frost giant thing." He admits reluctantly. "I'm sure Thor told you."

"I forgot." Darcy tilts her head and looks to him. "I remember you feeling… cold."

Loki takes her hand in his. "It happens occasionally. Here."

"You're warm now." Darcy takes advantage of his gesture and covers his hand with hers, feeling the warmth seep into her skin. It's comforting, and Darcy relaxes.

"For now."

Darcy yawns. "What about tiredness?" Darcy tries not to be fazed by the way his long fingers brush against hers. "Do you guys even need to sleep?"

"I…" Loki swallows, his face suddenly taut. His memories are filled with his waking moments with the Chitauri. There was no opportunity for sleep there. When he had closed his eyes, he saw Thanos behind them, demanding his prize. Loki composes himself. "I need sleep. Maybe not as much as you do."

"I would kill for a nap." Darcy closes her eyes and rests her head tentatively on his shoulder, taking her hand out of his. He doesn't stiffen under her touch, and instead relaxes. His shoulders drop and he leans his head on hers. The gesture is soft, undemanding.

 _I have killed for less,_ he thinks. Instead, he says, "I'll wake you when we arrive."

"Thanks." Darcy closes her eyes, her voice soft with tiredness. She buries her head in his shoulder, her cheek resting on the shoulder of his suit. It's a familiar position, she realises, her mind flashing back to the morning after the night she met him. It was the same then- morning coffee in bed, his back against the headboard as she rested on his shoulder. She hadn't really thought about the tenderness of the gesture, but now it seems odd, considering who he was. If she'd have known, she would have put a large bet on him disappearing without a trace in the morning. But he had stayed- only for a little while- but he had stayed. Like all thoughts about that night, she brushes it away with difficulty and thinks of something else. Anything else.

"There's something that's bugging me. You really think that was Odin out there?"

"I imagine so." Loki answers hesitantly. "Or a part of him, anyway. They say that death is not the end for Asgardians; their souls live on in a different form. Apparently Odin is no different."

"You're mad that only I saw him, right?" She tiptoes, choosing her words carefully. "Why couldn't you see him?"

"I think… it was only meant to be for you. I recalled the words he spoke when we met. The first time we met, I mean."

"I forgot about that." Darcy admits, remembering Odin's words at the nursing home. Maybe they weren't crazy ravings of a geriatric. She opens her eyes and looks up to Loki.

And immediately regrets this decision. He has his eyes closed, his impossibly long lashes making a shadow on his pale cheeks. He looks peaceful, much like the Loki who had slept soundly beside her all those nights ago.

"Odin said that he'd perish. He did. But his son would live on because of you." Loki says, his eyes flickering open, staring into hers.

It's a moment, Darcy realises. They're having a moment and all she can think about is how goddamn hot he looks. She blinks, trying to focus.

"You think that's why he went full force-ghost on me? So I could help rescue Thor?"

Moment ruined, she realises as Loki blinks, looking to her in confusion. "Full what?"

"It's from a movie. I forgot how out of touch you are." She begins to explain when she recalls something. "Wait, didn't he say that someone told him about me?"

Loki sighs. "I didn't take much notice in what Odin babbled back then, but it makes sense now. _She_ showed him your face. My guess is my mother knew of you before… before everything. She had a gift."

"Weird." Darcy tries her hardest to show that this really isn't fazing her, not one bit. But the fact Loki's _mother_ knew her way before she'd even met him was beyond strange. And then she told his father about her. Did she see them sleeping together? Ew. Darcy cringes. "This isn't weird to you?"

"A little." Loki agrees, breaking eye contact with her. She lets out a deep breath she has been holding and resumes her position on his shoulder, closing her eyes again. "Then again, my mother used to seek my counsel when she had particularly bad dreams. Ones that foretold the future."

"Do you think she saw Ragnarok? Or Hela?" Darcy is tired, but the jet is oddly quiet without her voice, and it suddenly feels awkward.

"If she did, she never told me." Loki pauses. "If she told Odin of you, it is likely she knew why we were here."

"Jesus. Keeping a secret like that would be super hard for me." Darcy admits.

"You're full of secrets, Lewis." Loki laughs shortly, causing her head to bobble on his shoulder. "Your lies to Jane Foster are evident of that."

"Ha." She says sarcastically. "That's a white lie. Not telling someone the world is going to end is kind of a big deal."

"Would you want to know?"

"Hm." Darcy thinks carefully, fully aware that Loki's hand was now resting on her thigh. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but Darcy wonders where they are drawing the line these days. Would it be acceptable to let him creep a little higher, maybe to reach over and undo a few buttons of his suit? Or maybe dropping to her knees in front of him, unclasping those tight suit trousers? She pictures having sex on the floor of the Quinjet and shudders. Nope. It's cold _and_ dirty. As much as Darcy's ladyparts warm to the idea (both figuratively and literally), she's glad of her mind to keep her from doing something very stupid.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Loki asks, his tone undecipherable.

Darcy's mind goes into overdrive. She manages to splutter out a non-coherent sentence, almost choking through the words. "W-what, wh-why are you… I mean what are you… um, thinking of?"

Loki replies as if Darcy had just managed to form a coherent sentence. "I'm thinking we should probably get some sleep. It will be madness when we arrive back. We may as well take this chance to rest."

Darcy clears her throat and swallows down what feels like disappointment.

"Okay. Yeah, rest. Good plan."

* * *

 _A/N - So I was a little evil with the Odin thing. I'm sorry ;)_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N - Heyo! Samy.F – thanks as always! I reckon after all that Darcy has gone through, ghosts are the last thing that'll freak her out! ;) skepticalfox – thank you so much! Here it is :) ahyeon – omg you never fail to make me laugh haha! Darcy as a ghostbuster seems like a bloody good AU! ;) KCM – Ha thanks – here's your update ;)**

* * *

The Quinjet's engine powers down and the doors open automatically at their arrival.

The entire SHIELD SWAT team lower their weapons in confusion, taking in the scene before them.

They'd been called here due to an unidentified aircraft that had touched down on Stark's rooftop, completely ignoring the warnings that they'd shouted down the radio minutes earlier at the aircraft.

Inside, they found the last two people they'd have thought would be huddled together in a peaceful sleep.

"Stand down. Someone needs to call the lab."

* * *

" _Eloping together?"_ Darcy repeats Jane's words back to her, just to emphasise how fucking stupid they sounded.

"Yeah, what else? All cosied up together whilst we worked our asses off in the lab, huh? Fancied a trip out, huh?"

"You know damn well that wasn't why I disappeared." Darcy tries to stay as calm as possible, knowing Jane's stress was just that – stress. Besides, Jane always reiterated that helping her awaken Thor was not Darcy's problem, even though Darcy had argued the opposite. "I went to help-"

"I was worried, Darce! You were gone for hours! I thought you'd been kidnapped or-"

Ha, Darcy thinks with irony. It feels like yesterday when Darcy was saying the exact same words, soaked to the bone in London, surrounded by police. She had called the police in that instant (well, her ex-intern had) and she's glad Jane hadn't followed in her footsteps.

Loki, who had been watching the two argue with a bored expression, finally cuts in. "You may want to hold off on the yelling, please. We have Mjolnir. Well, parts of it."

Jane's face turns red. "What?"

"We were told it may revive him by a… trustworthy source. Lewis here did some extremely helpful research that took us to Mjolnir, and, hopefully, the rescue of my stupid brother."

Darcy frowns at the offhand compliment on her research, whilst Jane processes this information.

"No funny business?"

"No funny business, Jane. For god's sake." Darcy huffs and grabs the bag of Mjolnir from Loki's grasp, setting it down on the desk beside Jane.

"How…?" She reaches in the bag and pulls out the handle of the hammer, holding it carefully.

"The enchantment has worn off, I suspect with its destruction." Loki says.

"We travelled by portal, Jane! It was super cool. Like one minute we were in New York, next minute, boom, we were in Norway! But Mjolnir was being a stubborn bastard and we could only travel back in the jet, so we've been gone a little while longer than we thought-"

"That's insane." She cuts her off, muttering under her breath, still handling Mjolnir with wonder. Darcy can see she's itching to take it up to Thor, so she takes the handle out of Jane's grasp, places it back in the bag and hands the bag to her. Her face is that of a child's on Christmas morning.

"Let's go wake him up, huh?"

* * *

Thor's body looks eerie laid in the glass cryochamber.

It's like one of Darcy's sci-fi books she used to love (until sci-fi became reality and she ended up banging an alien, that is). It's strange seeing him so still, so calm. He's usually so active, bouncing around the place with enthusiasm and power. Now, he lies so still he could be a waxwork model.

The Asgardian healers are scarce, and look to Jane with a solemn expression when she enters. Now she knows why Jane preferred to be in the lab. It is too quiet here. And there are too many pitiful looks being thrown around.

"Eerie." Darcy whispers as they approach his side.

"You could have just laid him in a ditch somewhere," Loki says with exasperation. "It makes no difference. He will wake without all of this nonsense."

"Quit it, Loki." Darcy turns to him with a frown. "We can't all be as _positive_ as you."

"You attended to me on Asgard, didn't you?" Jane recognises one of the healers and calls her over, ignoring the two of them bickering.

"Ah, you were the one we examined in the soul-forge."

"Quantum field generator, but yeah." She says proudly and gestures to Thor's chamber. "Can you open this?"

"It is not meant to be open. The Man of Iron told us to keep him sealed."

"We need to open this." Jane's authority-voice comes out and the healer takes a deep breath, ready for an argument to start. "You can tell Tony that I take full responsibility."

The healer nods and taps on the glass, bringing up a small screen.

Darcy holds her breath as the glass slides across, revealing the waxwork model underneath.

"Try putting the handle in his hand, Jane." Darcy offers her the bag, helping her lay out the pieces at Thor's side.

To be truthful, she doesn't want to go anywhere near him. Dead bodies freaked her out, but unconscious ones even more so. It was just the stillness of it all. So she leaves the man-handling to Jane, who slowly and carefully takes Thor's hand, placing the intact handle in his hand.

"Do we do something?" She asks timidly, her gaze not leaving Thor's face.

"Dr Strange just said we needed the hammer." Darcy watches Thor alongside everyone else in the lab with bated breath, waiting for something to happen. Anything. "He said it would wake him up."

Instead Thor lies there, as still as before, now loosely clutching part of Mjolnir in his cold hands, the glass chamber now entombing his body and Mjolnir as it slides shut.

"The magician said it was the 'best bet.'" Loki chimes in, his tone reeking of 'I-told-you-so'.

"Fuck you." Darcy turns on him. "I could see you believed every word he said, too."

"I'm clearly not as gullible as you."

"Gullible?!" She yells at him. "How do we know we don't just need to give it a little more time?"

Loki is about to answer when he looks over at Jane, who has her head in her hands, tears falling hard and fast down her cheeks. Darcy follows his gaze and immediately realises. She wraps her arms around Jane, her hands circling her back in a comforting notion.

"Shit, Jane. I'm so sorry."

Jane shakes her head and pushes her away gently.

"You're right. We should give it more time."

Darcy nods, and turns to Loki with a scowl. However, all she sees of him is his back as he makes his way out of the lab.

* * *

They leave him for a week.

A week encased in his glass tomb, surrounded by useless metal that hadn't moved an inch.

Jane won't move them, convinced that all it would take was the correct simulation, the correct environment. But it seems as though she's tried and tested everything short of attaching some jump cables to him and restarting him like a car battery (Darcy realises that's scheduled for tomorrow, actually).

Jane's resolve is impressive, and the fact that she is still working in the lab almost constantly is a clear sign that Jane never gives up.

Darcy had begun to suspect that the idea was a dud. She won't say that out loud, of course.

The only good piece of news was that her boss has reassigned her as Jane's assistant (not quite the intern she was before), and she is stuck to Jane's side in the lab on a daily basis, watching the small scientist fret over her unconscious sort-of-boyfriend.

Things have gotten complicated, too. The Asgardians are considering a new leader. Heimdall had visited briefly to let them know about the tensions, but the ultimate decision of the Asgardian's new home was to be made by SHIELD or, worse, the US government. After all, the Asgardians were basically asylum seekers as far as they were concerned. And whether they could stay had to be confirmed eventually.

Basically everything is going to shit, and Darcy Lewis is trying her best to keep it together.

The tension in the lab reaches an all-time high when Darcy suggests an alternative route to waking Thor. It isn't the first time she's suggested it, either.

"We should just admit that the Mjolnir idea is useless. I fucked up, okay? I shouldn't have given you the impression that it was definitely going to work." Darcy sips her bitter coffee, swallowing down the sick feeling in her stomach and the constant headache she'd had for days. She pops another painkiller, washing it down with lukewarm coffee. "It was a bad idea."

"You didn't fuck up Darcy. You presented a hypothesis, a potential solution to be tried and tested." Jane doesn't even look up from the metal object she is tinkering with. "And now we have a new variable. Something to work from. A potential conduit for energy transference."

"I still think we should go back to Doctor Strange and see-"

"-No." Jane faces her with a furious expression. "No more magic. We do this the right way."

"Magic may just _be_ that right way, Jane!"

"We're just… missing something! We can do this by ourselves."

"Listen, if we just visited him, he'd help, I know it. Banner thinks so too!"

"He's a fraud, Darcy. He won't fix Thor!" Jane spits. Darcy hasn't seen her so angry since the day SHIELD took her equipment and research away. "At this point I'm not sure if anything will!"

"You said! All that time ago- you said that magic is science we don't understand. We don't understand this so why can't we-"

"Shut up Darcy! This isn't a book on science fiction, this is _real life._ And we'll go through every scientific method in the book, instead of a wizard waving his hands around."

"Clearly this isn't working- how many tests have you run? It must be over a thousand!" Darcy pretends to check the endless pile of data printouts on her desk and throws them down. "Yup, science is definitely working!"

"Says the political science major! If you don't like my methods, you don't have to be here!"

"Hey! Fuck you, I've been helping you ever since-"

"- _You don't have to be here."_ She emphasises, her chest heaving with anger. "And I don't need you anyway, so you can go back to that stupid job of yours and leave me in peace!"

Darcy feels dizzy. Jane had never said anything remotely this hurtful before, and it stung. Jane realises it too, after seeing the tears well up in Darcy's eyes. She reaches out to her assistant with an apologetic look.

"Darcy… I didn't mean-"

Darcy, tired and fed up, turns her back on the scientist and takes her glasses off, throwing them down on the desk before she storms out. Fuck this, she thinks, wiping the tears that are rolling down her cheeks. She knows exactly why Jane had said what she had. They have both been on the end of their tether since Mjolnir hadn't worked, and they have been working almost constantly since.

Darcy doesn't remember the last time she'd eaten, or slept. She remembers taking a brief shower this morning, but aside from that, the constant glare of the computer screen and endless streams of data have fried her brain. She knows it is the same for Jane, but what she had said confirmed a lot of her doubts.

She suspected she wasn't needed. It was always at the back of her mind. Now it was confirmed.

Taking shaky steps down the corridor to the lift at the end of the hall, her vision becomes blurred. She holds on to the wall for support, and ends up stumping her toe on a decorative plant pot.

"Fuck." She sniffles, her tears still falling down her face. Who puts a stupid plant in the corridor? She kicks it again for emphasis, and regrets her decision as pain shoots up her foot. She puts her head against the wall for a brief moment, taking a few breaths to steady herself.

She bets she looks pathetic, but her composure is the least of her worries when most of her concentration is focused on staying awake and standing upright. After her argument with Jane, she realises the true extent of her weariness. The lights are too bright, and they hurt her eyes. She squints, her body shaking with exhaustion as she carries on walking.

The figure she sees coming down the corridor is the last straw.

She doesn't want to deal with Loki, since most of their talks end with arguments nowadays. She doesn't have the energy for arguments. She barely has the energy to walk.

"Darcy?" His face, blurred through her vision, looks concerned.

He never calls her Darcy, she realises as he draws nearer to her. He always calls her by her last name, and hearing her name on his lips once more is almost…nostalgic. She looks up at him in a daze, through her drooping eyelids. He's saying words, but there's no sound, and Darcy struggles to form words of her own when she drops to the ground.

The last thing she feels is Loki's arms as he catches her.

* * *

 **A/N - Never fear- I swear Thor is in good hands! It won't be as easy as that to wake him up though ;)**

 **Til next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

_Black Betty – So many cliffhangers! My bad! Samy.F – Thank you! Sorry it took so long! Ahyeon – Yes Ghostbuster Darcy would be awesome! And haha, everyone will be happy soon, I swear!_

Darcy wakes to an incessant beeping noise. For a moment, she forgets everything and reaches out next to her to turn an alarm clock off. Instead, her hand swipes across the bedside table and knocks a lamp and a glass of water onto the floor. She flinches at the harsh sound.

"What the…" She grumbles, her eyes fluttering open. Half asleep, she gets out of bed and goes to search for the annoying beeping that has woken her up, because it definitely isn't her alarm clock.

Suddenly, she stops worrying about the beeping when she realises where she is. Her feet touch the plush carpet and she freezes instantly.

She already knows whose room she is in, with her last glance (before she passed out) being a certain black-haired individual. It didn't take a rocket scientist (or an astrophysicist's assistant) to figure out where she's woken up.

However, she doesn't find herself shocked by this. She's more in awe of her surroundings as she takes in the luxury of this 'temporary living solution'.

"Bullshit." She scoffs as she glances over to the balcony. She peeks through the curtains cautiously. It is night time, and thick velvet curtains hang in front of the large window that looks out onto a beautiful New York Skyline. The beeping is forgotten for a second as she takes a look around, rubbing her tired eyes. So this is where the other half live, she thinks.

"This place is bigger than my apartment…" She mutters as she shuffles under a large archway to a living room area, furnished with a huge TV and leather seats. The plush carpet under her bare feet feels strange, foreign. It is like a hotel room, but much, much more luxurious than any she'd ever been in. Darcy half wondered whether diva-Loki had requested a room like this, where the large four poster bed took up half of the bedroom.

He even has a hot-tub bath, for fucks sake. How this is temporary (or perhaps Asgardian standard) is beyond her comprehension entirely.

She is driven out of her angry (and, if she's honest, quite jealous thoughts) by the continuous beeping coming from the bedroom area, which is now so loud she can't possibly ignore it.

It seems to be coming from her coat, which has been thrown, albeit neatly, over the end of the bed. She digs into the pockets and finds a familiar device. A small, mobile phone-like device.

Jane's phasemeter.

She must have pocketed it in the lab earlier. Before… She takes a deep breath. She'd think of that issue another time. For now, however, this tiny machine takes her immediate attention, and she's glad of the distraction.

The red light at the top of the antenna is flashing relentlessly, and the display shows a radar image of the room. In the corner, she can see a small blip, which, by the phasemeter readings, is giving off a huge amount of energy. It was more than she'd ever seen. Even when the dark elves came to London.

She gives the machine a little thwack on the bedside table and frowns when it continues making noise.

"What the fuck?" She mutters to herself as she follows the radar. Whatever is causing the beeping seems to be coming from the living room area.

Would it be so surprising to discover that Loki had something of immense power in his room? If it were a betting game, Darcy would put all her money on it.

She's sure she's so close to the blip on the radar, but she's facing a large set of drawers located under the large TV imbedded into the wall. She immediately pulls the handle open.

It doesn't budge, to her frustration, and she lets out a sigh. There's no lock to be picked or any security in sight. She runs her fingers along the handle of the drawers, curious and a little cautious, and a small keypad display appears on the wood, a glowing screen of letters and numbers.

She sighs. Of course. Tony Stark's safes won't be as easily identifiable. Or crackable.

She grabs her phone from her jeans pocket and opens up her decryption software, the smirk on her face growing. A challenge.

It takes her over two minutes to get into the system, and another five to get into the safe. She pulls open the drawer with a triumphant grin and looks at the small package that is inside. It is a small chest, leather bound. Pretty small for the effort she went through. She is expecting something bigger. Or shinier.

Maybe this is something personal to Loki, she thinks with a frown. Maybe she should step cautiously. It isn't a great idea to go snooping through his things.

But in the end, her curiosity wins out and she clips open the chest nervously, her hands shaking. She lets out a small gasp as the blue light floods the room. She reaches out…

"Don't."

The voice behind her is measured, and immediately recognisable. She spins around and scowls.

"Don't what? Don't look? Too late now, huh?"

"Don't touch it."

"You have the fucking Tesseract in your closet, Loki. _Really?_ " She's too astonished to feel fearful at his clearly predatory look.

"You know what it is." He seems surprised.

"Of course I fucking do! Since your trip to New York… Which I _thought_ we were past, I can't believe …" She's exasperated, throwing her hands in the air, trying to find the words to express how goddamn disappointed she is. "You put something like this in a _safe?_ "

"It is a temporary solution."

"I knew you were still an asshole, but… I thought you were _over_ this… better than this… World domination crap!"

"I thought you were better than looking through people's belongings." He raises his eyebrows. He doesn't even look fazed. "Clearly I was wrong."

Darcy shakes her head. "It isn't _yours_ to begin with, is it?"

"I claim no ownership." Loki shakes his head and takes a step forward. Darcy tries not to flinch. The Loki she is looking at now is a far cry from the man she took home that night. He looks at her menacingly, his words through gritted teeth. "I am merely keeping it safe."

"From who?"

"It is none of your business."

"Thanos, right?" Darcy knows all about his deals from the bits and pieces she's managed to extract from Thor and the SHIELD servers. "I _know_ who you're hiding it from. I'm not dumb. I just hoped you'd tell me."

Loki flinches at Thanos' name, and Darcy notices. He regains composure immediately, but Darcy sees the fear underneath. "He's looking for it. And when he finds it… I can't guarantee _anyone's_ safety, not even my own."

"He thinks it is on Asgard, though, right?"

Loki nods. "And that is how the story will remain."

"Jane is going to lose her shit." She mutters under her breath, and immediately regrets it.

Suddenly, Loki is in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, pushing her painfully against the set of drawers. She slams into them and cries out.

"Jane Foster will never hear of this." Loki growls, his fingers digging into her shoulders.

Darcy winces, her gaze never leaving his. "If you don't tell them, I will."

"I'll kill you before your lips move." He says menacingly, his face inches from hers.

"Huh. The only death you've ever threatened me with is of the little variety." Darcy doesn't know why she's cracking jokes and riling him up even further. It _is_ hard to take him seriously when all she can see is flashbacks of him groaning her name underneath her. Clearly her survival instinct is skewed somewhat.

Loki blinks and loosens his grip, a tired look on his face. He breaks eye contact with her, shaking his head.

"The tesseract died with Asgard, Darcy." Clearly Loki has tired of using her last name, and her name on his lips doesn't fail to send a shiver up her spine, despite the circumstances. She makes a mental note to consult a psychiatrist after all of this, because clearly something is wrong with her.

"How do I know you're not using it for your own gain… Again? I don't wanna be responsible for another New York situation."

Loki rolls his eyes. "You have my word."

Darcy laughs. "Yeah, because that means _so_ much."

She suddenly has an epiphany, and takes a deep breath, grabbing onto his shirt. "Haven't you thought it might be, you know, beneficial to your brother? That amount of energy… It's the jumpstart we can't seem to generate, Loki."

"It has crossed my mind-"

"-and you didn't think to mention it?!"

"You think it is worth waking my brother _and_ the wrath of Thanos? That is, if the experiment isn't another failure. Your plans don't exactly have a 100% success rate, do they?"

Darcy sighs at his flimsy excuse. "You don't want Thor to wake up, do you?"

"Of course I do." He shrugs. "The throne of Asgard cannot sit empty. Though if we use the Tesseract, Thanos will likely kill us all."

"We can say something else woke him. Get one of Jane's crazy experiments or something. Then you can keep the Tesseract under the radar. Like nothing happened. And if it doesn't work, nothing changes." Darcy pleads. "You know it makes sense."

After hearing no protest from Loki, she smiles. "See, it's a win-win situation."

"I don't see how I win." Darcy can see him toying with the idea and pushes a little more.

"If you don't tell them, and wake your brother, what's the difference between you and your psycho sister, huh?"

She can tell she's won by the scandalised look on Loki's face.

"I am not Hela." His eyes narrow and he practically hisses at her.

"Look, your mom apparently _saw_ me save Thor, right? So let me save him with the Tesseract, okay? You have 'til tomorrow to decide what you wanna do about this." She turns away from his furious look, and feigns confidence as she tries to walk away from him.

He, unsurprisingly does not let her past, and she bites her lip as he grasps her arm, pulling her back against the drawers. He closes the space between them, his hands now on either side of the drawers behind her, closing her in. She leans back slightly, aware of the space between them.

"If I tell Jane Foster about the Tesseract, it is between us and us only."

"Agreed." She nods.

"No telling SHIELD, my brother or any other mortal who happens to ask."

"You think I'll go back on my word?" She raises her eyebrows. "Like you do constantly when you're off on one of your... weird power trips?"

"I told you I no longer desire a throne."

"Then what do you desire?" She asks, curious as to the strange machinations of his brain.

Instead of answering, he stares at her, hard, until Darcy realises she can't breathe. He's way too close to her, and he's clearly undressing her with his eyes. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to ask what he _desired._ One look at his gaze and she could tell.

Before she can mull the idea over in her mind, he pulls her forward into a searing kiss, his body pushed against hers in desperation. His hands move to the small of her back, pulling her closer. She can't breathe, and pulls away to gasp against his lips.

"I think we should-"

"Don't think." He says, his forehead resting against hers, his breath shallow. His voice is surprisingly soft, and Darcy can't believe that five minutes ago, he was threatening her with death. She laughs against his lips and winds her fingers in his hair, pulling him to her.

With a sigh she closes her eyes and lets go. There's no thinking involved, only Loki's fingers pressing into her back, his lips on hers. Her body is almost moving of its own accord, her tongue slipping gently against his. She moans against him when he pushes himself against her, and suddenly she feels the urge to rip off his clothes. Like, right the fuck now.

As if he can read her mind, he moves his lips to her ear, his breath against her skin giving her goosebumps. "Fuck…"

His voice is enough to make her tremble, and she responds accordingly, pushing him back onto the sofa behind them with all the force she can muster. He collapses on it with surprise, and Darcy immediately straddles him, feeling his lips move to her neck, biting and sucking.

She rocks against him, feeling his length through his leather pants brush against her with urgency. She gasps, her grip on his hair growing tighter with every move. Finally she manages to disengage herself from him, and drops to her knees in front of him.

His gaze is searing as she unlaces his trousers. He lifts his hips, and she pulls them off. She runs her nails up his thighs and he tips his head back, his breath unsteady as she takes him in her mouth. She runs her tongue along his length, his moans spurring her on. Half of her just wants to fuck him now, but the other half wants to drag this out as long as she can.

"Darcy…"

And so she drags it out, setting a languid pace as she moves up and down his length. He is gasping her name, and she takes his grasp on her hair as a signal to stop. When she looks up at him, he looks completely undone. More so than last time, and she tries (and fails) to stop herself from grinning at his dishevelment.

"You're still clothed." He snarls and leans over, pulling her tshirt over her head. He does the same. He pulls her back into his lap and undoes her bra, his lips going straight to her breasts. She gasps as he bites against her skin, his hands slipping into her jeans.

He struggles to get past the tight denim and growls. Darcy moves, attempting to stand and rid herself of her jeans, but instead, he rips the denim clean in half down the zip.

"What the fuck?" She says, looking down at her ruined jeans. First the shirt, now her jeans. Loki _has_ to stop ripping the shit out of her clothes. Especially when they're expensive.

"You can berate me later." He kisses her again, and pushes her down onto the sofa so she's under him. He pulls her jeans off with a hungry look, and his fingers finally slip between her legs.

She lets out a groan when he finally slips his fingers inside her, releasing a little of the tension that had been building up there. She tries not to gasp his name when he moves, but she can't help herself, and he looks at her with a mischievous expression, before replacing his fingers with his mouth.

Her breath is short and shallow. "Please." She pants, trying to control herself as she bucks into him. She cries out, throwing her head back against the sofa, her back arching under his ministrations.

With shaking limbs, she manages to push him off and lower herself down onto him with a slow exhale. She groans as she sinks down on him.

His gaze never leaves her as she moves slowly against him, rolling her hips as he sits beneath her.

He swears and gasps her name again, his hips bucking up to meet her movements. His fingers leave marks on her skin as he guides her, steadying her frantic thrusts against him. His hands move to her breasts, rolling his fingers against her nipples as she tries to stifle her gasps.

Loki rolls her over and thoroughly fucks her into the sofa, his movements rough until she feels him shudder against her, his body slack.

"That was… unexpected." She says, watching him get up and looking at her slyly.

"Really?" He answers, grinning.

What was the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?

If the shame meant having sex with an ambivalent Asgardian villain, shame was definitely on her this time.


	8. Chapter 8

_Blazing Romance – Sorry this one took so long! And haha honestly thank you so much – I'm beaming lol – no pressure then? ;) ahyeon – thanks for the heads up – I honestly didn't even realise the rating was that low! And Darcy is on it… in more than one sense ;) Guest – thank you! Glad it read as not cheesy, then!_

* * *

"Please be careful with that." Loki mutters as Darcy walks the winding corridors down to the lab. She has no idea where she's going, or if they're even in the same building as the lab. My god this place is disorientating.

The small chest containing the Tesseract is in her hands (after a lengthy argument) and she's holding it like a new born baby.

"Do you not think I know what this does?" She turns on her heel and raises her eyebrows.

She gets an exasperated look in return.

"I'm sure you do." Loki reaches his hands out in expectation. "Just… let me carry it."

"Nope." She says, continuing down the corridor and into the elevator, pushing the button.

"You don't even know where we are, do you?"

"Sure I do." She lies. "I still don't get why you hid this in your _closet_. Decisions like that mean that I get to hold the fucking weapon of mass destruction, okay?"

"I told you it was temporary. I _had_ a safe place to keep it. But it was destroyed along with Asgard. Now, give me it."

Darcy sticks her tongue out and climbs into the elevator. She lets Loki lean over and push the button. Huh, so they were in the same building. The elevator is descending awfully slowly, and she steals a glance at Loki, who is staring protectively at the Tesseract box in her hands.

She's glad of the distraction, but the silence is awkward to say the least, and no one seems to be addressing the giant elephant in the room. Namely, the fact that Darcy has slept with him. Again. She realises she had an excuse before, but now it's just plain negligent.

She's slightly reassured when she sees Loki has taken it as casually as she has – he even fixed her jeans before they headed out to see Jane. Speaking of fixing things…

"Your hair is a mess." Darcy notes, looking over at him. She reaches up to smooth down the mess, Tesseract under her arm, and shortly realises that they were in for round three if he carried on looking at her like that. Her hand darts away from him and he grins.

"I believe you were the one who did the messing."

"Please stop looking at me like that."

The elevator door finally opens and they exit, only for Darcy to stop in front of the lab doors.

"We haven't really talked about what happened back there?" She tries to sound casual, and completely fails.

"I was under the impression you knew _exactly_ what was going on."

"It's not a regular thing, okay?" Darcy fires back with as much self-respect she can muster.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

He looks hurt by this comment, but regains his composure and grins. "I have many ideas, Lewis. None of them include entertaining you in my bedroom again."

"Good."

"Great."

"Yeah."

"Fine."

They stare at each other for a second in absolute silence, whilst Darcy figures out how the hell she should feel about this situation.

Loki takes this opportunity to lean forward as close as he can possibly manage, his chest pushing up against the Tesseract box in her hands. She holds her breath, her eyes never leaving his. Slowly he leans in, and instinctively she closes her eyes, waiting for the contact, but instead, opens them to find Loki looking extremely smug. He steps away from her, a sly grin on his face.

Inside, she's screaming. Her bluff was well and truly called. Fuck.

"Can we go in now?" He gestures to the lab as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah, sure. Yeah." She mutters, pushing her access card onto the reader. The doors open, and she braces herself, knowing that Jane would be on the other side. They hadn't left on the best terms, admittedly. She can still hear Jane yelling at her in her mind that she wasn't needed here, that she was useless.

But a short glance around the lab shows Jane isn't here.

The lab is empty; the machines that Jane had been working on have been abandoned on the desks littered with paper.

"Where is she?" Darcy sighs, putting the box on the side _very_ carefully.

"She went home."

The answer comes from one of the offices, where Dr Bruce Banner stands in the doorway, awkwardly leaning on the desk beside him.

"She needed rest. She was pretty torn up about your argument… So I told her to go home." His timid smile vanishes when he glances to the man next to her. "Loki."

Loki heads over to Bruce, giving him a short pat on the back. It's clear his intentions are not to reassure Bruce, but to wind him up. Darcy watches as his body goes stiff with what she assumes is fear.

 _There,_ She thinks. _That is the way you're supposed to feel when Loki gets up in your personal space._ _You're supposed to feel scared, intimidated. Not turned on._

"You've been avoiding me, Bruce." He smiles, his look predatory.

"I'm surprised to see you haven't been detained yet." He deflects the question.

Loki laughs. "I've been very treated well, thank you. They've been _more_ than accommodating to my needs. But I _did_ stop Ragnarok after all, so I am your saviour-"

"You destroyed Asgard."

"My brother's instructions-"

"I still don't trust you." Bruce's eyes narrow. "And that stresses me out, so if you don't mind…"

"Okay, okay." Darcy gets between the two of them, handing Loki the Tesseract chest before the conversation transitioned to 'what's in the box?'

"We're leaving, Doctor Banner. Sorry."

"Call Jane. She's worried about you."

"I will." She says, pushing Loki out of the lab. She turns to him with an exasperated sigh.

"What do we do now?"

"We wake my brother, as planned."

"Without Jane?

"Without Jane." He confirms.

"Are you-"

"Sure? Yes. Time is of the essence."

"Okay then… Gimme a sec." Without another word, Darcy rushes back into the lab. Banner has clearly locked himself in an office, blinds down, presumably calming himself after talking with Loki. Darcy understood completely – ten minutes with Loki would mean at least thirty of yoga and deep breathing exercises. She schedules this in her mind. Maybe some meditation would be helpful in her situation.

She ducks under Jane's desk, searching for the key piece of the puzzle, cautiously moving files and failed experiments from her path. She smiles when her hands clasp around the small box, the blue of the arc reactor glowing through the chrome metal casing. It looks like a giant battery, with conductors on each side.

Only Jane would keep a bunch of extremely dangerous (and expensive) materials stacked under her desk in a junk pile. She reckons if she put half of this stuff on Ebay, it would pay off her college tuition, plus a little extra.

"Perfect." Pulling it carefully out of the mess under Jane's desk, she re-joins Loki and grins.

"What _is_ that?"

"Trust me, we'll need this."

-x-

When they walk into the medical bay, it is as quiet as it has ever been.

"Where's all the other healers?" She notes the lack of presence in the room compared to the last time they were here. It is empty- only one healer watches over Thor with a concerned expression.

"They've lost hope." Loki mutters. "And it clearly has nothing to do with the rigorous screening and compulsory Midgardian transition courses."

"Transition courses?"

"They've been put in place to _acclimatise_ the Asgardians to your way of life. Little do they know, we already have an extensive knowledge of Midgard."

"Yeah, like a hundred years ago."

"Nothing's changed." He shrugs.

"If you say so." She doesn't have the energy to argue with him.

"Leave us." He says to the healer, who glances over to them with a puzzled look.

"I am here to ensure-"

"Leave. Now." His eyes narrow and Darcy gets a glimpse of the terrifying man underneath his seemingly nice exterior.

The healer leaves promptly with a deep sigh and Darcy looks at him with exasperation.

"You couldn't be nice about that?"

He looks at her tiredly. "That would be a waste of time, and not nearly as effective."

"True." She says sourly. "Put the Tesseract in this," she hands him the box she swiped from the lab. "Take out the arc reactor _carefully_ and replace it with the Tesseract. When we're done, we'll switch it back over. Bada-bing-bada-boom, no one will know." She grins at her plan, and gets nothing but an exasperated look from the man beside her.

"Jane Foster hasn't tested this?" He gestures to the arc reactor.

"She has, but only in simulations. It was, like, the closest we'd ever been to waking him up. She'll be pissed when she realises we've done this without her, you know. She didn't leave the lab in, like, weeks and now we're potentially-"

"Done." He hands her the case, now glowing with the Tesseract's light.

"That was quick. You wired it up right?"

Loki looks at her with annoyance. "Do you take me for a fool, Lewis?"

Back to "Lewis", she suddenly realises. Typical. The only time he seems to calls her Darcy is when he's fucking her. Or when she's collapsing in random hallways. There has to be some sort of pattern, she's sure of it.

"I don't know, but if this blows up and I die, I swear I'll haunt the shit out of you."

He shrugs, unaffected. "I wager that would be rather entertaining."

"I'd annoy the shit out of you." She argues, taking a look at the modified box.

"More so than usual?"

She sighs, looking closely at the box's modification. "You really want to kill us, don't you?"

She reaches into the box and reconnects a wire to the conductors, ignoring the strange shaking motion the box seemed to be making. "Blue to blue, idiot. Jane colour-coded these for a reason."

Loki stays quiet as Darcy fights a triumphant grin. When she checks that the other cables are connected, she lifts the glass casing around Thor, looking down at the pitiful pieces of Mjolnir left from their last attempt. She places the reactor at his bedside, and hooks the clips to the sides of the casing and to Thor's fingertips, attaching the electrodes pads carefully to his chest. The wires stemming from the case are now shaking with what she assumes is pure energy.

She gulps noticeably, her hands trembling. She manages to pass off her shaking as laughter, chuckling under her breath. In all honesty, she is terrified.

"It's kinda like a huge defibrillator, isn't it?"

"A huge _what?_ "

"This is exactly why transition courses are a thing." She says, activating the small screen on the casing, like she'd seen Jane do days ago. The readings on the meter have stopped working, and are now displaying a bunch of zeros in the place of actual numbers.

Loki looks over at this and frowns.

"What if this kills him?" He says in a small voice.

Darcy blinks. _Concern? For his brother?_ "Say what?"

"If we kill him." He repeats a little louder.

"We won't." Darcy says as confidently as she can. "We've run pretty immense currents through him before. We don't even get a jolt. He just… absorbs everything or something."

"This is something entirely different. Its power is unparalleled."

"I know." She hesitates. "You know, all this hate and indifference about Thor… I know you care. I've just been winding you up. I know you love him. Like, deep down. Super deep, like the deepest circle of hell deep-"

"Just push the damn button, Lewis."

"You sure?"

"I am."

Darcy backtracks, and their impending actions suddenly hit her. "But if we _do_ kill him, I don't think I'll be able to live with myself-"

Loki rolls his eyes and leans over to the display, pushing down on Darcy's finger, which is hovering above the activation button.

She can feel the static in the air as soon as the button is pressed. She hears the crack of the chrome casing around the tesseract, and is dragged back by Loki before she realises what has happened.

"Darcy!" He knocks her to the ground, his body forming a protective stance between her and the Tesseract as the crackling becomes more intense, shaking the room with a low rumble. Dust falls from the ceiling, covering them in a thin layer of debris.

In the distance, she can hear the clank of metal against metal, and tries to look around Loki to Thor. She squints into the blinding blue light that has engulfed the room, only able to make out the cracked glass of Thor's chamber before screwing her eyes shut.

She lies on the ground under Loki's shielding body, her hands covering her ears, face screwed up in pain. It is deafening now, and she's sure it's blinding- she can see the blue glow of the Tesseract through her eyelids. She smells smoke, meaning _something_ must be on fire. Darcy idly hopes it's not something important.

There's an immense jolt – holy fuck, she'll be held accountable for the destruction of Stark's building – and everything goes silent.

Coughing, she gets unsteadily to her feet and looks through the settling dust. It's impossible to see to Thor's bedside through the smoke, but relief grips her, and she begins to laugh.

"Ha!" She shouts, helping Loki up and giving him a reluctant high five (on his part, anyway). "We didn't die!"

"Neither did I."

The voice is a familiar one, and she looks to Loki with wide eyes before squinting through the hazy room. Ignoring the flames engulfing one side of the room, she runs through the dust and smoke.

She collides with something tall and solid, and looks up at him with a beaming grin. She's clearly fighting the urge to throw her hands up dramatically, and yell a Frankenstein-esque 'it's alive!' at the top of her voice.

Don't do it Darcy. Don't you fucking dare. Be cool, be cool.

"It's aliveee!"

Apparently self-restraint wasn't one of her better qualities.


	9. Chapter 9

**Unbelievably late, and unbelievably sorry!**

 **Can't begin to thank everyone for their amazing reviews! I was reading them all and thinking 'holy shit I have to finish this!' It's been yonks, so if you're still reading, you're the best! :)**

* * *

Loki takes the moment of reunion to switch out the Tesseract, replacing it with the modified arc reactor. With a flick of his fingers, he sends the Tesseract back to the safe in his room.

He looks over at his brother in the mist and fights a triumphant smile.

The warm feeling in his chest is unfamiliar, and he ignores it as he approaches Thor and Darcy.

"Brother, I…"

Thor hesitates for a moment before he pulls Loki into a rib-breaking hug.

"Thank you. Both of you." Thor still holds his brother to his chest in a vicelike grip, whilst Loki struggles to free himself. When he does release himself from Thor's grasp, he looks at Darcy with an exultant grin.

"Are you okay?" Darcy asks, concern in her tone as she examines Thor quickly. He's clearly looking as sturdy as ever, but Darcy fusses anyway. Seeing a man-God rise from the dead like that seemed a little too good to be true in her books.

"I'm feeling much better, actually." He says, grasping onto the nearest piece of furniture to steady himself. He didn't look entirely _compos mentis_ , and if his bed/glass tomb wasn't on fire, Darcy would insist on him lying back down. Thor frowns. The next words uttered makes Darcy realise where his priorities lie. "Where's Jane?"

"She's at home. She hasn't functioned properly since you went all Sleeping Beauty on our asses." Darcy laughs, until she sees the concern on Thor's face.

"She's fine." She reassures him. "Just needed some R&R, that's all."

"I'll take you to her." Loki offers, his chest heaving up and down with excitement. He practically looks like an overexcited puppy at this point, his pessimistic attitude gone completely.

"You don't even know where she lives." Darcy counters.

"No, but you do." Loki presses his palm against her forehead, and her body goes numb with shock. She sees Jane's apartment, clear as day, then backs out, into the corridor, into the street, into the city. When she finally comes to, Loki looks smug.

"Holy shit, Spock. You could've just _asked_."

Dizzy from the headrush, she stumbles back and her feet catch on a stray piece of debris. Loki grabs her arm without hesitation and pulls her to him. The fucking second-rate Prince Charming act. Though Darcy thinks there's a moment there, as they lock eyes, it is over in a second as she pushes him gently away, looking guiltily to Thor.

Thor rolls his eyes, completely unaware. "He learnt that trick at least a century ago, and he's always itching for the chance to show off."

"I am still here, you know." Loki notes sourly. "Do you want me to take you to your beloved, or not?"

"Can we go already?" Darcy coughs. "Stuff is _still_ on fire and us humans need to breathe."

"Oh, you're on damage control duty, Lewis." Loki smiles angelically. "After all, we need someone to tell the others _why_ the room is on fire, and _how_ Thor has awoken."

"Good idea." Thor smiles widely, not sensing the smartass-ness of Loki's tone. "Let's go."

Loki looks to his brother approvingly, and rubs his hands together in preparation.

"You can't be serious?" Darcy coughs, her eyes flicking between them.

"Oh we're serious." Loki says with a nod, before he and Thor disappear in a flash of green.

At least Thor looked _slightly_ sympathetic. Loki on the other hand…

Darcy lets out something that is halfway between a groan and a yell.

"Well fuck you too!" She shouts angrily into the gathering smoke, grabbing the nearest fire extinguisher to put out the flames that are slowly growing larger.

It only takes thirty seconds before she's face to face with an angry Tony Stark and his security team. Apparently he wasn't in Hong Kong, because he's staring her down with a look of disbelief and anger rolled into one.

"What the hell?"

Darcy drops the fire extinguisher with a guilty look and puts her hands up.

"I can explain."

* * *

Darcy is released from SHIELD questioning an hour later, and lets out a huge sigh as she exits the building. Her only punishment was the instruction that she had to go back to work the day after tomorrow, and not, to quote Agent 'tight-shirt' Smith, _"mess around with things way above your paygrade again."_

Weird. She'd expect a promotion (or paid holiday) for waking up an Avenger, no matter what the method.

She takes her phone out of her back pocket, absentmindedly checking the time and how many likes she had accumulated on Instagram with her 'Iron Man Didn't Start The Fire' photo. She grins as she scrolls to the photo: Tony Stark looking outraged at the charred medical station, with Darcy in the foreground looking slightly guilty. One for the album, huh? Well, before SHIELD pulled it.

Wait. Her eyes flick up to the bar at the top of her screen. How the hell does she have _17 missed calls_ from Jane? She quickly dials Jane's number and takes a deep breath.

"Darcy thank god." She hears Jane pick up after the first ring. "I've been trying to call you."

"Hey. Yeah, it's been crazy. I'm on my way to-"

"-Listen, Darcy, I'm so sorry."

"About what?" Darcy asks, pacing across the entrance to the building. There's an awkward silence until Darcy remembers. "Oh, right. Yeah, I… I forgot."

"You forgot?" Jane says incredulously. "How?"

"You know, with Thor waking up and just… other stuff." _Like a good old mindclearing reunion fuck with a Norse God._

"Right." Jane doesn't sound convinced. "It's all I've been thinking about Darce. I'm sorry. I… don't know what possessed me to even say those words, but I didn't think that, not for one second. I promise. Budget permitting, I'd keep you as my research partner forever, you know that?"

Always the practical one. Yet ridiculously soppy. "Jane…"

"I need you Darcy. And not just for coffee runs or data analysis, but as a friend. A partner. You know I'd trust you with my life."

Darcy is oddly touched, but has long forgiven Jane for her little stress exhaustion breakdown. "Listen Jane, nobody meant what they said that day. We were both crazy from lack of sleep, and you know what happens if I don't get my midday bagel."

She hears Jane's timid laugh, and smiles.

"So we're… okay?"

"Have you slept?"

"Yeah, a full 12 hours."

"Eaten?"

"Yeah."

"Showered?"

"Totally."

"Good. Then we're okay." She laughs, glad to hear Jane's lively chuckle in return. "I'm headed to your place now. I presume Thor is with you?"

"Yeah. Loki explained everything, I'm just sad I wasn't the one to- "

"I tried to get you to the lab, I swear. Loki was just too impatient."

"I know. I'm just happy Thor's okay."

"Me too." Darcy grins. "I'm getting a cab now, I'll see you in ten."

"Okay!" Jane cuts off the call with an excited tone.

Darcy grins at her phone for a second, feeling as if a hefty weight has finally been lifted. She flicks back to her Instagram photo again, laughs heartily, and pockets her phone.

She stands by the kerb and flags down a taxi, climbing in and finally relaxing on the leather seats.

Trying not to wonder who had thrown up in this cab earlier, she shouts Jane's address to the driver.

The SHIELD questioning earlier really wasn't that bad, she realises as the taxi pulls out into the usual gridlocked traffic. Darcy isn't the worst liar, but the questions about how they woke Thor up sent her stress level through the roof. She had some data from their test runs earlier that backed up the whole 'arc reactor' awakening method.

Though she wouldn't have stood a chance if they had hooked her up to the lie detector. So far, they'd detected no foul play, no weirdness going on. They weren't looking to suspect anyone, after all. Not yet, anyway.

Just a God being sizzled back to life with the Tesseract. The Tesseract that Loki was hoarding away like a secretive magpie.

Fucking hell.

If the truth got out, she'd be found guilty of aiding a criminal. And not even in the traditional way, either, like hiding a friend's stash or lying to the police about someone's whereabouts (neither of which Darcy would admit to, anyway).

She can picture her excuse now: "Oh, I'm sorry he had this weapon of mass destruction, but we _really_ needed to make a deal to wake a God up". Not to mention the guilt that would consume her if he went dark-side again and decided it would make a good weapon.

Besides, she'd kill Loki before he even had the chance.

Then they'd hook her up to the lie detector, and she'd probably have to admit _everything_ in front of Jane and Thor. Even the sleazy bits.

She wipes a bead of sweat from her forehead, trying to calm herself but she can just imagine it. Sitting in a court, the judge banging his gavel and yelling 'guilty!' as everyone booed her. Not that it mattered, because shortly after, Loki would hop into her jail cell for a pity bang (if she was that lucky) before going on to enslave the human race with his new found Tesseract power. Fuck.

She contemplates the repercussions of her actions until she get to Jane's, and it is only because the taxi driver is yelling at her to get out.

She passes a twenty through the hatch and climbs out, looking up at Jane's apartment balcony.

"Eugh." She exhales as she sees the 'out of order' sign on the elevator in the hall. "Perfect."

When she finally reaches Jane's apartment door, she doesn't even bother to ring the buzzer, and instead tries the doorknob. It's unlocked, and she frowns, concerned.

She should really learn to lock her front door, given the current events, but then she realises the security of two Asgardian princes would be enough to deter any burglar.

Darcy realises why it is unlocked when the handle begins to turn from the inside, and Loki slams into her painfully.

"Ow." She rubs her nose, where it has collided with his chest. She's about to cuss him out when she sees the look on his face. Bright red, with a hint of hurried embarrassment.

He grabs her hand and leads her out to the hall, shutting the door firmly behind him.

"You don't want to go in there." He says quickly, leading her down the corridor and to the stairs. His legs are longer than hers, and with his pace, she's struggling to keep up.

"Why are you-" Darcy stops dead on the stairs and looks at him with amusement, her hand dropping out of his.

"I went to the balcony for _one second_ , and when I turned around-"

His words are cut off by Darcy's echoing laughter in the stairwell. She's doubled over, and struggling to breathe through her laughter. "They… forgot you… were there, didn't they?"

Her laughter dies out when she sees the unamused look on Loki's face.

"They used to do that to me _all_ the time." She grins. "In the lab, at her place, _at my place._ "

"Yes, yes." He grabs her hand again and begins to walk down the stairwell. "Either way, let's get out of this blasted place."

* * *

Darcy's autopilot takes her home, her feet dragging across the familiar pavements to get to her apartment, Loki in tow.

She frowns. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

He hasn't let go of her hand since Jane's, and Darcy pries her fingers out of his grasp to find her keys when they reach the door.

"Not really, no." He says, the realisation dawning on him. "Why?"

Darcy fiddles with her key and the chain attached. "Just figured, you know… everything with Thor is done and I thought you'd just do whatever you do in your free time when you're not decimating cities and stuff."

"Midgard is boring when there's nothing happening, I must confess." He grins. "Would you like me to leave?"

"No!" Darcy immediately curses herself for replying so desperately. Needy much? "I mean, no, it's fine. I was just gonna watch some shit TV and sleep anyway. Come in."

Loki raises his eyebrows, and the shit-eating grin still stays on his face, long after Darcy invites him in. Smug bastard. Darcy really needs a poker face, and she sure as hell she's an open book as far as Loki is concerned. She's slightly pissed it doesn't work the other way around. For instance, she couldn't tell whether Loki legitimately had turned it around supervillain-wise. She'd take Thor's word on that, and so he was to be trusted. With a pinch of salt, of course.

Loki smirks slightly when they cross the threshold, and looks around in amusement.

"You haven't changed a thing in here, have you?" His words suggest that perhaps she should've.

"I like my set up. Living room to the right, kitchen in the middle, bedroom to the left, and all my junk scattered everywhere." She gestures around her studio apartment like she's giving a tour. Loki hadn't noticed before, but Darcy _does_ have lots of junk; small mementos lining the shelves of her bookcase, magazines strewn on the coffee table, posters and trinkets decorating the walls.

She isn't the tidiest, and her furniture still doesn't match, he notes.

Darcy finds herself nervously looking through her cupboards for anything to offer the guest who has sunk into her favourite armchair by the TV. She opens the fridge and grins at the sight of an untouched six-pack on the top shelf.

Throwing a beer to Loki, she sits in the armchair opposite, groaning in relief as she finally sits down for what feels like the first time in forever. She groans, stretching her legs.

"You never said how it went with Thor and Jane." She asks him, twisting the bottle open and taking a grateful gulp. "Did they buy the arc reactor thing?"

Loki mirrors her action, but pulls a face at the taste of the beer before setting it down on the table. "They did, as I predicted."

"You sure you don't want to tell them?" Darcy raises her eyebrows. "Then you won't have to murder me when I accidentally let slip to Jane or Thor that you have the Tesseract."

Despite the dark comment, she laughs off her worries when she sees Loki grin slightly. "I don't want Thor meddling in things he does not fully understand."

"I guess he'd understand it when you tell him, but you're not going to do that, are you?"

"Not in the foreseeable future, no." He picks up the bottle again, and twists it nervously in his hands, picking at the label.

"I didn't tell SHIELD about the Tesseract."

"Thank you."

There's a moment of silence, and Darcy suddenly decides to switch on the TV. Any background noise to cut through this awkwardness would be a godsend right now.

She fishes the remote out of the back of the armchair and clicks the TV on.

"… _Reports from Stark Tower show that over one-hundred Asgardian refugees are being sheltered by SHIELD. Among those residents, our sources confirm that the Asgardian that was responsible for the attack on New York is also being sheltered. We have Tom, live at the scene to discuss-"_

Fuck. Darcy switches the TV off quickly.

Always impeccable timing. It was unnerving to see the news had gotten wind of the Asgardian situation. Since the attack on New York, there had been a change in public knowledge about other worlds, and strange people with strange powers. And then, the Sokovia accords came along, and the public were well on their way to funding some sort of superhero police squad. Well, until it turned to shit.

Earth is in for a mind-blowing transition period, that's for sure.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You're going to ask about the Chitauri attack, aren't you?" He says dully, his gaze still at the bottle in his hands. "And Thanos."

"I just wanted to-"

"I am not proud of what I did, Darcy, if that is what you're alluding to."

Darcy finally looks up to him, and sees his miserable demeanour.

He clears his throat. "I never knew that my travels would take me onto the puppet strings of a mad titan, and for that, Midgard paid the price."

"Space is scary, huh?"

"Terrifying." He raises his eyebrows. "But far more interesting than this planet."

"Do you think you guys will be staying on Earth? Settling, I mean. I can't see it."

"Why? Are you concerned I'll leave?" Loki looks up, a sly grin back on his face.

"Ha, ha." She says sarcastically. "I think we've confirmed that, yes, I do function when you're not around. You do seem to pop up at the most inconvenient times though." She sighs. "I might miss you if you jet off back to space. I might go back to annoying Jane, or my co-workers. Or correcting people on forums."

"You are an interesting Midgardian, Lewis." Loki says, completely out of the blue. "I was reminiscing about our first meeting, and how striking you seemed in comparison to others. I feel as fate had a hand in bringing us back to each other."

"Fate. Pft." Darcy scoffs. "You sound like a fortune teller, or a bad pick up line."

Probably the bad pick up line, until Darcy remembers his little spiel about not entertaining her in his bedroom anymore. Fair enough, fortune teller it is.

Darcy puts her bottle down with a loud clunk. "Holy shit. Speaking of fortune tellers, your mom was right! About saving Thor, I mean. I completely forgot."

"I'm glad she spoke of Thor, and not her _other_ son." He looks at her pointedly. "If my life was in your hands…"

"What?" Darcy says incredulously. "You wouldn't trust me to save you?"

"No, I'd trust you."

Wow, Darcy thinks. Since he'd been here, all she'd done was fuck him and fuck with him. She highly doubts she has his trust until this moment. Until she realises it works both ways, and despite his short comings, she realises she'd trust him too. Maybe not with her life, though when she thinks about it, he'd done nothing but watch her back. In the corridor where she had fainted, in Norway, where he came back for her. That very evening when Thor woke with a fiery explosion, he'd still shielded her.

Well, hell.

He continues, never meeting her stare. He seems completely unaware she'd gone into full recalibration mode.

"The predicaments that I get in… I don't think I'd want you to save me." Loki says shortly.

"What do you mean?" Darcy leans forward.

"You heard the news." Loki points to the TV. "They will be baying for blood soon. My blood. Getting wrapped up in that would be… unfortunate on your part."

Darcy sighs. "Sure, but if you were dying, or in trouble or something…"

"You'd truly help me?"

"Of course." Darcy says simply, as if it was a clear fact.

Loki looks oddly touched. He seems to relax, and leans back in his chair, picking his beer up again and sampling it.

"You would've liked Asgard." He says, a dreamy quality to his voice. "Better ale, for one."

"What was it like?"

"Beautiful." He didn't even pause to think. "Golden spires surrounded by dense woodland and waterfalls, city streets that were paved with marble and steel, not grey concrete. Even on the most miserable days, when the rain and storms rolled in, the city was colourful, vibrant."

He suddenly looks crestfallen, his words trailing off into sadness.

"I wish I'd have hitched a ride with Jane when she was all infected with that space virus-"

"-the Aether?"

"Yeah, when she went to Asgard to get fixed up. She raved about it for weeks. Said it was like Narnia, with less talking lions."

"Unfortunately I was _under_ the city at that point, in a cell. Until my brother freed me."

"I bet the cells were better than this apartment though." She laughs.

Loki's grin fades. "I should've taken you back when we first met. You would have thrived there."

Darcy misses the sentiment in his tone. "Weren't you parading around as the King at that point?"

"Jane Foster told you about that, I presume."

"Yeah, she's told me everything Thor has told her. Well, aside from the weird shit they probably get up to in bed." Darcy's hand goes to the beer bottle, and discovers it is completely empty. Something about Loki clearly made her nervous, and the drink had gone down a little too well. She gets up and fetches another two, plonking them down unceremoniously on the coffee table.

"Apparently I have work the day after tomorrow. I'm not spending my day off nursing a hangover. Two drink limit." She says.

"I could always destroy the building if you don't want to go back?" Loki picks up the other bottle and twists it open.

Darcy laughs. "That's cute, but no. I have rent to pay, a student loan to dodge."

Loki scoffs. "You're speaking to a prince of a very wealthy realm, Lewis. Not to mention Midgard's enemy. All I have to is put my best murderous face on-"

"So you'd blow up and building _and_ threaten my landlord?" Darcy is dumbfounded. Either she was dreaming or Loki is being unbearably nice to her (by way of destruction and threats, but still…) "If only my mother knew I brought home a very resourceful intergalactic felon…"

She trails off, and suddenly it is awkwardly silent as her resolve crumbles.

"Okay." She yawns. "I'm going to bed. You can either lock the door on your way out, or you can sleep on the sofa."

"Sofa?" He raises his eyebrows. _Really?_

"You're not having my bed, Your Highness. Besides, I thought you didn't want to _entertain_ me anymore?" Darcy grins as she makes her way to the bedroom. "There's a blanket on the armchair, _or_ the keys are on the hook by the door. Sweet dreams." She slams her bedroom door behind her before she changes her mind.

No, no, Darcy. Twice was enough, and getting chummy with an Asgardian supervillain turned hero wasn't the wisest of ideas. No matter how hot.

As she gets into bed, pulling the covers to her chin, she notices the distinct lack of her apartment door opening or closing.

Looks like it was the sofa, then, she grins, closing her eyes.

* * *

Companionship has never been Loki's forte. He'd get bored easily, and he realises his ego was likely to blame for that. But had Thor not been fickle, snobbish and as egotistic as he had been? But he has become more soft-hearted of late, once he had met Jane. He'd thought of Thor's tameness after his exile as a weakness, not a triumph.

Despite his lessening hatred toward his brother, it seems as though he was heading down the same unusual and unfortunate path.

And he knows this when he rises from his place on Darcy's sofa and carefully opens her bedroom door. He looks over her with curiosity from the doorway, willing himself to step no further. Darcy's dark hair spills out over the pillows, her lips parted, her face relaxed. She looks serene, if not slightly dead to the world.

He has seen her like this before, when he had awoken that night, and found that he had stayed in a stranger's Midgardian home on a whim. But then he had stayed, and found some sort of peace in her arms, in her bed. In her constant laughter and snide jokes.

It is oddly endearing, and he frowns, taking a reluctant step forward.

She sighs in her sleep, and rolls over, pulling the duvet twisted between her legs.

He takes another step forward, and another, before he finds himself lying next to her in the dark.

Is he being possessed? He does not have any recollection of pulling the available duvet over himself, or of tenderly brushing through her hair as he lay beside her.

He definitely does not remember gently pulling her to his chest, or the sound of her breathing lulling him to sleep.


End file.
